Ironbound bound for New Brunswick

Susan / 23.08.2004

Canada’s East Coast will be highlighted once again this race season. In early August Newfoundland hosted the AR World Championship. In late September, New Brunswick will host the Ironbound Adventure Race. It may not be as long as the ARWC, and the field may not include Nike or Nokia, but that doesn’t mean the Ironbound isn’t challenging: Canada’s outdoor magazine explore has listed the Ironbound as one of Canada’s toughest races.

The Ironbound Adventure Race will take place the weekend of September 24th-25th near Saint John, New Brunswick, an area known as an adventurer’s paradise. The course has been designed by Maritime Rescue and Medical, led by Mike Currie. In typical Canadian AR tradition, it includes plenty of navigation and bushwhacking (no need for off-road triathlons in the Great White North).

The course also includes a rope section that race director Ron Tibert affectionately calls the “Cheese Grater.”

“Although not hard at all, if you are sloppy it will take a piece of you … like it did me!” he writes. “Over all my impression of the ropes section is that it is going to be truly fantastic. At one of the many breath taking (and by breath taking I mean terrifying) cliffs, Mike showed me where the multiple ropes will be installed to prevent bottle necks.”

Tibert also says that the mountain bike section, which he calls “a mountainous maze,” will challenge even the best navigator.

“My only word of advice to teams is to watch your navigation and have faith in your bike computer. With the multiple roads crisscrossing the mountain biking section one mistake is guaranteed to send you in the wrong direction for hour after exhausting hour.”

There are three ways to race: co-ed teams of four will race in the premium category and there will also be categories for all male or all female teams of four. Teams will need a support crew.

For more information on the Ironbound Adventure Race, e-mail info@eastcreek.ns.ca
or call Ron Tibert at 1-902-456-3238.