Since adventure racing’s “birth” at the 1989 Raid Gauloises in New Zealand, the sport has undergone relatively few changes. Over the last two decades teams of 3-5 members have navigated with map and compass across rugged terrain by foot, bike, paddle…and sometimes inline skate or camel! While adventure racing’s multi-sport cousin triathlon has been defined by its relationship with expensive carbon fiber technology, adventure racing has always been more about the unique team challenge of overcoming unexpected adversity in sometimes extreme conditions while navigating from point A to Z.

Many adventure racers were drawn to the sport from other endurance disciplines when they first watched Eco Challenge, Raid Gauloises, Southern Traverse, Adventure Racing World Championships, or Primal Quest on television. Over the last decade these events also invested in websites that posted race updates and photos, and with SPOT GPS tracking, allowed viewers to track teams’ progress towards the finish line.

Even more recently, regional 24-hour events have utilized SPOT tracking to do the same, using the CheckpointTracker.com platform. Friends and family members at home have been able to follow their team’s progress along the *course* from home, as they overcome seemingly impossible challenges to reach a finish line. Some might actually consider entering an adventure race based on the exciting and dramatic photos and videos posted. With televised adventure racing a thing of the past in the United States, web coverage may be the greatest marketing tool available today to attract new athletes to the sport.

Unfortunately, over the last few years some race directors across the country have decided that instead of a true point to point adventure racing course, they would instead offer an orienteering-style, or rogaine course. In this format, racers are not required to visit checkpoints in order, but can skip CPs as they fit, and the team with the most CPs at the finish line, finishing the fastest, wins. If a rogaine event happens to offer online tracking, obviously the viewer at home is very confused as it becomes impossible to determine a team’s standing until the race is over. Tracking becomes pointless. In some cases, hours or days pass after a team crosses the rogaine finish line before they know their actual placement. What kind of race is that? Needless to say, this is ridiculous and a massive turnoff for anyone who would have been considering the idea of forming a team and entering an adventure race. When explaining this format to a non-adventure racer, the feedback is unanimously “disgust”.

Rogaine format events are sabotaging the sport of adventure racing for the aforementioned reasons, but at the participant level they often cause awful situations such as teams fighting to “clear the course” to be bottle-necked behind less competitive teams who have skipped checkpoints, effectively ending their race by no fault of their own. Additionally, there seems to be a correlation historically between rogaine courses and number of protests. Prior to the recent plague of rogaine races, protests were few and far between compared to today. In point to point races, teams know their placement during the race and more importantly at the finish line.

When confronted, many race directors use the excuse of wanting middle and back of pack teams, the majority of their customers, to have a chance to finish their course. A point to point adventure racing course with a cloverleaf design not only improves transition area logistics, but allows or requires teams who find themselves far behind cutoff schedules to skip one of the “clover leafs”. Short coursed teams would skip that loop but would not be shuttled ahead of long course teams, preventing bottlenecks at ropes. In a true point to point adventure race, skipping points would never be a race strategy. The cloverleaf format works for entry level to elite teams and tremendously improves the ability to spectate and follow the race both in-person and online when tracking is available. More importantly, this allows greater clarity before teams leave the starting line, as they have an opportunity to discuss any course concerns with the race director privately. Courses can be designed for “most” teams to finish between 22 and 26 hours, and the winners several hours beforehand.

In 2011, adventure racers have a choice. Patronize the cancerous rogaine races that preclude any sort of tracking – for viewers or confused racers on the course – or choose point to point races with creative course design that will reward the fastest and best-navigating teams instead of the “lucky” teams who skipped the “right” checkpoints or flipped a coin and did the checkpoints in a particular order.

Adventure racing athletes of all levels make enormous sacrifices with their time and money just to enter an event. It only seems fair if not obvious that athletes should be allowed to compete fairly in a race that rewards skill, fitness, and teamwork instead of chance. Both racers and race directors have a choice to make in 2011. Race directors have an opportunity NOW to “change course” before the season begins for the betterment of the sport. Fortunately there are enough races on the calendar in 2011, from sprint to expedition distance, that teams will not have to compromise on this issue. Race directors should also realize that there is more non-adventure racing competition than ever, with the spike in popularity of single or multi-day ultra-endurance mountain bike events, ultra marathons, XTERRA triathlons, and more.

Choose wisely in 2011. Teams who patronize rogaine style races in 2011 are participating in the demise of our sport. By choosing point to point races we can end the absurdity that is sabotaging this awesome sport. 2011 will be an inflection point in the growth of adventure racing as well as online team tracking technology. Now is the time to COURSE CORRECT.

Upward and Onward,
Sean Clancy

http://www.clancymultisport.blogspot.com

Sean is PASSIONATE about the sport of adventure racing and has been competing in adventure racing in the USA, Mexico, and Europe since 1997. He began his competing in running races in 1990 and triathlons in 1992. He was 1/3 of the 2008 USARA National Champion Team DART-nuun, which went undefeated in the 2008 Checkpoint Tracker series, including the Gravity Play Moab Expedition. He races for Team nuun-SportMulti and lately has also moonlighted with TecnuExtreme StaphAseptic. Sean also competes in road cycling events, ultra mountain bike races, and Ironman triathlons. We would not call what he does in his open water swim races “competing”. Outside of racing he also enjoys practical shooting, climbing, and Jeet Kune Do. He resides in Boulder, Colorado.