Photo: Bean and Her Boys: KenBob, JeanBean, Monkey Butt

David “Monkey Butt” Glover wrote:

Hey Jean and Ken, Are you either or both of you interested in doing this as a 2-person or 3-person team? It’s local!

Website: http://www.ex2adventures.com/venturequest-ar.php

• Long Sprint Adventure Race (Sport Level), 28-35 miles, 5-9 hours
• Segments: trekking, paddling, mountain biking, navigation
• Teams of Two (new for 2008), Three and Solo Racers
• Solo Divisions: Solo Female and Solo Male
• 2 Person Divisions: Duo Co-Ed, Duo Female, and Duo Male
• 3 Person Divisions: Co-Ed, Female, Male, Masters (combined team age of 120+)

KenBob responded:

Dude, that looks awesome.

JeanBean responded:

The adventure race sounds great. Ken and I are interested. My only hang up is I don’t have a MTB.

Thus, Team “Bean and Her Boys” was formed. Bean also manged to convince another friend, Rob Bell, to give a try. Rob raced solo.

Every team needs a theme of course. Our theme was pirates - ARRRHHH!

Photo: Pirate Power! armbands

Like Jean, I also didn’t have a mountain bike, but both Jean and I managed to secure bikes the week of the event. Unfortunately, neither of us had a chance to ride beforehand - which became painfully obvious during the mountain biking portion of the race. In addition, none of the three of us had done an adventure race either although I had recently attended the Pura Vida Adventure Racing Camp near Brevard, NC so had somewhat of an idea of what to expect. This race would be a fun, new experience for all of us.

Photo: Our faithful steeds of steel

Adventure racing, like triathlon, is a multi-discipline endurance sport. This “sprint distance” race took us 7.5 hours to complete and consisted of trekking, orienteering [with a compass], paddling a canoe and mountain biking. In my mind, the biggest difference between triathlon and adventure racing is that a triathlon follows a known and marked course while an adventure races don’t tell you the course beforehand and require you to go to a number of checkpoints - sometimes in order, sometimes not - without telling you how to get there. In other words, you have to be able to read a map and choose the best way to get from Point A to Point B without getting lost.

The race started at 8 AM on Sunday, October 5 with a prologue run to one of three check points. We chose the longest route but it was mostly on road so we thought it would be the fastest. After returning to the transition area (TA), we headed out on our mountain bikes then proceeded to trek, paddle, mountain bike, trek and finally mountain bike back to the finish line 7.5 hours later to finish second place in the co-ed 3-person team division. Note: Top winning times were around 5.5 hours.

Bean and Her Boys on the Podium (2nd Place Co-ed 3-person Team)

The navigation skills I learned from a week at the Special Operations Force Academy and later reinforced at the the Pura Vida Adventure Racing Camp proved to be adequate as successfully navigated to all the checkpoints.

So yes, I’m definitely hooked on adventure racing. I’m looking forward to doing some more races to gain experience and work my way up to the multi-day events with the eventual goal to do Primal Quest.

More photos courtesy of JeanBean’s camera.

Live life richly and boldly!

David

—-

David B. Glover
Experiential Writer, Elite Athlete, Coach and Race Director
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine
Personal Web: www.davidglover.net
Business Web: www.enduranceworks.net

©2008 David B. Glover

Biking under Bridal Falls in NC

Ever since the Special Operations Force Academy in April, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing some adventure races for something new and exciting beyond triathlons. “Expedition-style [multi-day] adventure racing is the closest thing that you’ll get to the experience of the Special Forces” was what I was told by the instructors.

Rather than learn through experience over years of racing, I wanted condensed instruction and practice in the skills needed for expedition-length adventure races (multi-day events like PrimalQuest) and that’s exactly what I received when I participated in Pura Vida Adventures’ Five Day Adventure Racing Camp in Pisgah Forest, NC.

Photo: Thomas, another participant, snags me on the rope and pulls me back in towards shore

The five day camp broke down as follows:

• Day 1: Adventure racing gear and packing. Mountain biking.
• Day 2: Flatwater paddling including 1- and 2-boat rescues.
• Day 3: Trekking and navigation.
• Day 4: Whitewater paddling including self-rescues, river swimming and rope rescues.
• Day 5: Ropes - rappelling and ascending.

Each day was packed with activity beginning with classroom discussion in the morning then moving to the field for practice in whatever discipline we were working on that day. The small group size (two of us plus our instructor enabled us to move at our pace and cover topics that were appropriate to our experience and interests.

Video clip: David performing rope rescue of Thomas in white water

The camp was led by Joe Moerschbaecher, owner of and head guide for Pura Vida Adventures. A little more about Joe from the Pura Vida website:

Joe has lived in the Brevard, NC area for over 8 years where he first explored and discovered the surrounding mountains and for the past six years has worked as a commercial guide. In addition to his work as a guide, he received a bachelor degree in the field of Wilderness Leadership from Brevard College and Master’s in Adventure Recreation from Ohio University.

Since graduating, Joe has taught college courses in climbing, kayking, mountain biking , and backpacking at both institutions. He has attended workshops offered by the AMGA , ACA, AEE, and AORE; and holds certifications as a Wilderness First Responder, an American Canoe Association Swiftwater Rescue Instructor, and American Red Cross Instructor.

Photo: Me performing a self rescue on a rappel

In addition, Joe has participated in a number of expedition-style adventure races including the recent PrimalQuest 2008 in Montana where his team “Hunky Dorys” finished an impressive 11th overall!

I highly recommend this camp for anyone thinking about doing an adventure race, especially a multi-day event like PrimalQuest, and looking for a comprehensive course that covers adventure racing in a nutshell.

As for me, I signed up for EX2Adventures’ VentureQuest on October 5 with friends Jean “Bean” Colsant and Ken “KenBob” Woodrow. The race is considered a “Long Sprint Adventure Race (Sport Level)” of 28-35 miles with an expected ract time of 5-9 hours. Segments include trekking, paddling, mountain biking, and navigation.

Photo: Joe demonstrates proper rope technique to Thomas

More photos from the 5-day camp available here.

Live life richly and boldly!

David

—-

David B. Glover
Experiential Writer, Elite Athlete, Coach and Race Director
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine
Personal Web: www.davidglover.net
Business Web: www.enduranceworks.net

©2008 David B. Glover

The Power Of Team: Three Ordinary People and Their Run to Greatness
by Peter Wortham

I had the opportunity and privilege to meet Joel Burrows AKA “Ghost” when we both participated in the Special Operations Force Academy in the last week in April. With an extensive background in endurance events including Ironman-distance triathlons and marathons, Joel was the one participant at the Academy with whom I could most closely identify. Joel earned his nickname “Ghost” by maintaining a low profile during the week - by staying under the radar. Yet, on the final day and night, Ghost took over as the team leader of the 44 participants (our initial group of ten from the week long Academy merged with 34 more participants for the final 24-hour SEAL Adventure Challenge).

Joel had also done something, which still seems incomprehensible to me now: he, along with his then wife, Nancy, and friend, Dave, won outright three of the four “Racing the Planet” Desert Races. The “Racing the Planet” races are a series of seven-day, 250-kilometer (~150-mile) footraces across the world’s largest and most forbidding deserts - the Atacama Desert in Chile, China’s Gobi Desert, the Sahara and finally “The Last Desert” in Antarctica. Each participant had to carry 30 pounds of their own survival gear, clothing and food on their backs, running across sand and rock, climbing dunes and mountains.

I asked Joel afterwards why he chose the Special Operations Force Academy. This is what he had to say:

After 11 Ironman races, more marathons than I can count, and winning outright 3 of the 4 Racing the Planet Desert Races, I was looking for a new challenge. In 2003 I saw a flyer about this camp, and it has been on my mind ever since. Now that I am going through my divorce and am able to choose the events that I want to participate in, I felt this was the time to go after the SEAL camp. I began training in January and only took about 6 days off between then and the start of the camp. I am always looking for the next challenge and really wanted to show up to the camp in the best shape possible. I felt like I achieved that goal.

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“There are 2 aspects in life that will haunt you for the rest of your life that will last forever: Regret and Glory…which one do you want burned into the memories of your soul - Regret or Glory?”
- Special Operations Force Academy Instructor Jono

Photo: Team “Slit Throat” dressed up for our late night Field Training Exercise (I’m in lower right hand corner)

The following is a copy of an email that I sent to the Instructors of the Special Operations Force Academy (SOF/A) and SEAL Adventure Challenge (SAC):

Dear SOF/A and SAC Instructors:

Second, as an athlete, I hit a bad spell of overtraining a little over a month ago - I was sick, tired, irritable, had an elevated heart rate, slept poorly, etc. I decided not to do Ironman Arizona on 4/13 because of health concerns. I also experienced weakness, especially on the right side of my body, to the extent that I could not even do 10 push ups (truth).
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