Adventure Racing - What is it?

Adventure Racing - What is it?

Author: Matt Koerber

Adventure Racing is a team sport, in which teams must stay together and navigate around a course by means of mountain bike, running and kayaking. The key to being successful in the sport isn't necessarily the athletic ability of the participants, but rather the ability to navigate, and work together to conquer the course mentally, as well as physically.

Adventure Races are run over a few hours, through to 10 days, and quite often don't stop, meaning athletes must choose to stop and rest when they can, and quite often winning teams survive on as little as one hour of sleep for each 24 hour period.

Australia's premier Adventure racing organise is BlackHeart Events. (http://www.blackheartevents.com.au). They organise sprint through to 24 hour adventure races in most parts of Australia.

The sport is believed to have started with the Raid Gauloises, but the most popular and highly recognised adventure race is the one organised by Mark Burnett of 'Survivor' fame - the Eco-Challenge. The final eco challenge was run in Fiji in 2002, and rather than sell the rights, Mark Burnett retired the Eco Challenge so as to preserve the prestige of the event.

Currently the worlds most expensive race is the Primal Quest in the US, but other events have recently popped up around the world which challenge this race in terms of prestige and prize money. The Abu Dhabi Adventure challenge, started in 2007, now offers huge prize money and pays down to 30th place, while Geoff Hunt of Southern Traverse fame has implemented a World Series of Adventure Racing, which has linked around 10 races from around the world into one series, with a World championship race held each year.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/outdoor-sports-articles/adventure-racing-what-is-it-980692.html

About the Author

Matt Koerber is the Directof of http://www.blackheartevents.com.au and an experience adventure athlete.