AR World Championship 2005
Rusch's Blind Date
Rob Howard / 01.11.2005
Rebecca Rusch will captain a totally new Team Montrail for the Adventure Racing World Champs, since all her regular teammates are ill, injured or otherwise engaged. Based on recommendations from AR greats Keith Murray and Nathan Fa'avae, she will be racing with 3 Kiwis who race together, but whom she doesn't know. Rusch said she's looking at it like a fantastic blind AR date!
Her teammates will be:
Tim Pearson, multi-sport legend in NZ. Has done multiple Southern Traverses, including a win. Raced at Primal Quest last year and has completed the NZ Coast to Coast numerous times. General hard man.
Neil Gellatly, also been around solo multi sport racing in NZ for ages. Has podium finished in the prestigious Coast to Coast race. He’s a navigator who has been spending lots of time over in the race area since the team was put together.
Karl Strode-Penny, brother of Kristina who races with Balance Vector (Seagate), so if family genes have anything to do with it, he'll be fast. He was also at Primal Quest last year, though he's not done as much AR as the guys above, but he has a mountaineering background and has been super strong in the races that he's been in.
Commenting on the subject of having a blind date with three Kiwi men Rusch said, “We'll, I was going to throw in the towel and just not go. I sort of half-heartedly sent emails around to some of my friends asking about available racers.�
“What ended up happening after screening these guys through mutual friends is that their excitement and enthusiasm started to wear off on me. Granted, we've only really emailed and not spent time together, but I've never really met a Kiwi I didn't like, and they all seem to possess that fantastic Kiwi combination of good humour and incredible heartiness.�
“So ... since this is "adventure racing", I'm definitely in for an adventure!"See All Event Posts
