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Let the Adventure Racing Begin!

Ali Mynett / 11.04.2005

This weekend introduction to adventure racing was everything I hoped it would be, and more. With the rapidly approaching start of the adventure race season, I figured it was time that I found out exactly what it was that I would be letting myself in for, after promising a friend that I would pair up with her for some of the ACE races this year. I’d asked her thousands of questions about the anatomy of the one and two day races, but in the end, the only way to find out about it all was to actually jump in head first (as I was later to do from a kayak) and try it out.

Having successfully managed to navigate my way from Sheffield to Wrekin College, near Telford, albeit along motorways and A roads, the course began on the Friday evening with an interesting way of meeting the twelve other ‘students’ and four facilitators. Our introductions and team building session revealed that we were from all over the UK, from very diverse backgrounds, with varied amounts of experience, and all different ages and fitness levels! Even better news was that our facilitators were all extremely experienced in AR and had a huge amount of knowledge that would be passed on to us fledglings over the following two days.

The Saturday began with us plying ourselves with as much food as could be eaten (a theme that continued the whole weekend, much to my delight), knowing that a busy day lay ahead of us. A thorough kit session (with lots of wide eyes drooling over shiny gear) was followed by navigation theory. This confirmed in my mind that one of the hardest things about AR is planning a route for a score event. You can be as fit as a butcher’s dog but if you don’t know where you are going or don’t make it back in time then you are well and truly scuppered!

Raring to get outside and put our newfound knowledge into practice, we headed out on foot in groups of three or four students per facilitator, then on the mountain bikes, to try out navigation on the move – always trickier than it sounds, especially whilst sliding through the mud. Four hours later we returned to base to head straight over to the pool and try kayaking (only my second time trying it so there was a lot to learn!).

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