Canadian Adventure Racing Expo
Fa\'avae’s Expo Endurance Adventure
Mark Somerville (Expo Organiser) / 03.05.2004
The great Expo adventure began on Wednesday night, waiting at the airport for several hours only to learn that Nathan Fa\'avae had not boarded his plane in L.A. Panic sets in, what’s happened! We return home and several phone calls later discover that Nathan has had some \"logistical\" problems in L.A., first delaying him by thirteen hours and then causing him to have to return to Auckland. At this point believe that we\'ve lost our keynote speaker for the Canadian Adventure Racing Expo – who wouldn’t.
The next morning we have an email letting us know that Nathan is flying again – this time from Auckland to Osaka, then to Vancouver and on to Toronto. His arrival in Toronto late Friday evening concluded a three day, 60 hours of flight time ordeal to get to CARE 04. Talk about never give up. Most would\'ve canned it.
Both Ian Adamson and Nathan participated the very next day, first thing in the morning as team members in the ARC Urban Race which ended up taking over five hours.
Remarkably, after the race, Nathan insisted on returning to the venue with us to help set-up for the show, and I must say that he worked at least as hard as the rest of us, if not harder. It was quite a treat for all the exhibitors to have the opportunity to meet the racer away from the crowds. All were very impressed … especially with his floor marking and sign hanging abilities.
Sunday kicked off with a few lucky racers getting a very personnel coaching clinic on ‘Secrets of Successful Adventure Racing’ from one of the best, Ian Adamson. All were thrilled and ensured they got copies of his new book, The Runners World Guide to Adventure Racing.
Then the Expo kicked off at 10:00 am with a greater number of Exhibitors than ever. The show was a buzz with people discussing racing, products, and training and turned out to be a great networking tool for the exhibitors and chance for many to catch-up.
Simon Donato representing the newly formed Canadian Adventure Racing Association made a short presentation on the objectives of CARA, one being the growth and safety of the sport in Canada. Finally the show wound up with a general question and answer session held by Nathan, Ian and Canada\'s own Dave Norona. It was an action packed and successful day all round … and we’re already looking forward to next year!See All Event Posts
