ECCO-ESAR

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The World’s Safest Adventure Race

Peter Dobos / 08.06.2007

Traditionally “adventure� and “safety� have been on opposite ends of a spectrum, at least in my twisted little mind. The ever-present risk of potentially catastrophic bad things happening to me has always been one of the draws of adventure racing. Yes, I’m a sick puppy.

Enter an event called ECCO-ESAR. ESAR stands for “Emergency Services Adventure Race� (the ECCO doesn’t stand for anything; it’s the name of the title sponsor who happens to make wicked trail shoes). Almost 90% of the racers, volunteers and staff are police, firefighters, or paramedics. From stolen gear to forest fires to injuries, you’re totally covered. This may be the world’s safest adventure race.

Anyways, ESAR is the brainchild of Mark Arnold and Heather Korol and had its 5th running this year. In a nutshell, it’s a traditional sprint (5-8 hr) adventure race for Emergency Services personnel. In a better nutshell, here’s an excerpt from the race website, http://www.ecco-esar.ca/home.php :

ECCO-ESAR was created to give emergency service personnel a venue to compete against each other in a fun-grueling-challenging one day format. The race also raises money for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Peel Region. This day is meant to challenge teams, give them a sense of camaraderie and a great feeling of accomplishment. Many teams race just to complete the course and to have a great time. Last year the competitors of ECCO-ESAR raised $5000 for Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

This year I was asked to do this race as a “navigation and AR tactics ringer� with a couple of extremely competitive women from the Mississauga fire department. Tanya and Angie routinely podium at the firefighter combat challenges both nationally and at the World Championship level. Each of them was likely strong enough to bench-press me and twist me into a pretzel, and they were relying on me to not get them lost. No pressure.

After trying to impart some AR tips and tricks via a deluge of emails, we finally met on the morning of the race. They had both worked a 24-hour shift leading up to the race start, but assured me this wouldn’t be a problem. My rookie team with high expectations was now also sleep-deprived. As a final confidence booster, I caught Tanya taking the number plate FROM LAST YEAR’S RACE off her bike. Clearly they had been doing tons of training: I was half expecting to have to blow dust and cobwebs off their gear.

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