Team Dynamics is often what makes a team happy and successful, or miserable and ready to give up.  Your team is your Superpower.  Choose them wisely. Solo vs Team I have raced as a solo adventure racer and on teams.  I started out as a solo racer, because I did not know anyone in the AR community.  I did not know how I compared to other racers – always certain I was much slower than them.  At these races I would tromp around the woods by myself, running into teams from time to time, worried I was lost, somehow finding checkpoints and then moving on.  When I fina ..read more

Plotting UTM points onto an adventure race map is typically a skill reserved for “longer” races. It often shows up in expedition races, where you’ll plot UTM points either pre-race when mapsets are received, or on-the-clock when more of the course is revealed during the actual race. That’s not to say you won’t see it for certain 12 hour or 24 hour races, depending on the old-schoolness of the Race Director. Plotting your map used to be the norm. It was one of the basic required skills in the navigation bucket.  The good news is, that you should be given a heads up if you’ll need to plo ..read more

I am sure many of us who do adventure racing get this question quite often…  “What is Adventure Racing?” When I try to answer this question, my answer always feels inadequate.  On the surface, an adventure race is a team endurance activity that requires using a map and compass to navigate your way around a course to find checkpoints using different athletic disciplines.  But what does that mean?  To adventure race properly, you need a team, you need to navigate around the course with a map and compass (no directional signs showing you the course route), and you may be jog ..read more