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The Great Indoors

Rob Howard / 24.03.2005

Over 50,000 visitors made their way to the NEC for the recent Outdoors Show, and some left as converts to Adventure Racing after visiting the stand run by SleepMonsters. It was a joint venture with Questars, ACE Races and endurancelife, James and Lisa Thurlow of Open Adventure were on hand helping to answer questions as well, and Dream Team T.V. provided some entertaining film footage.

Some visitors were new to adventure racing, others wanted to give it a try … but didn’t know quite how to start. Everyone’s questions were answered, and there was a strong response to the competition to ‘Win a Day Adventure Racing’. The Rat Race were also there (on the next stand), and Jim Mee gave some presentations on the race in the ‘Decathlon Introduction To Theatre’.

Around the halls some experienced adventure racers were on various stands, Helen Jackson advising on Merrell footwear, Keith Byrne and Anthony Emmett for The North Face, and Anna McCormack on the eVENT stand. A large part of this stand was given over to a display on adventure racing, with a display of the equipment used by Anna at various races.

You couldn’t miss the Land Rover G4 Challenge either. With the dates for the 2006 competition announced and venues in Thailand, Laos, Brazil and Bolivia, Land Rover were using the show to launch the UK selection process. There were bright orange Land Rovers and Range Rovers in the halls and being used for demonstrations outside, branded bikes, and large screens showing footage of the 2004 challenge. We’ll have much more news on G4 soon … watch this space.