ARA is AWOL ... But Back Soon

Rob / 21.03.2004

For over a week now the well known email discussion group the ‘Adventure Racing Association’ has been out of action. It’s a Listserv group which works by emailing anything posted all it’s members, though the postings were all available on a website too. It’s been in operation for many years now, with an international membership, most of them getting a daily digest of postings ... until recently.

The list is used by many Race Directors to promote their events and occasionally flares up into heated discussion. For the most part though it’s a useful source of information, particularly on U.S. racing, and a handy way to reach the wider AR community. Which is why it’s sudden disappearance has been a bit of a shock. With no warning the emails stop coming and the web site disappeared, and during the last week SleepMonsters has had lots of enquiries asking if we know what is going on. (Many of them from Race Directors!)

The service is owned and managed by Robert Nagle (one of the most successful racers ever in his time with Team Eco-Internet) and we’ve now been in touch with him. It seems the problems with the service occurred unexpectedly while he was away travelling and he is now looking into them.

So, all being well, service will be resumed very soon, and lots of racers will be glad to see a message with the familiar subject ‘ARA Digest’ in their inbox once again.

A Bit of History

The Adventure Racing Association was originally created in 1998 as an international advocacy group for racers. (Given the recent antics in Patagonia it is something that is perhaps still needed now).

The website ‘Adventure Racing World’ was launched as the official publication of the ARA, and promised “the latest adventure racing news, a comprehensive race calendar, photo-illustrated event coverage, a team mate referral service, and extensive information about getting involved in adventure racing ….. and live, on-site coverage of the major events in the sport.”

It was ahead of it’s time and didn’t last, but Robert Nagle was the publisher and the ARA Listserv came out of it and grew in popularity.