If you have never done any adventure races before this is the perfect event to begin your off-road journey. There is no question whether you can or can’t complete the Women’s Adventure Race. If I can do it you can do it too!
All right, you’re committed to give it a go, all looks exciting but perhaps where to start is not particularly clear.
I will tell you my story. I was always sort of an active sporty person, but could never really do well in any adventure racing sports. I was just bored in my office, did not want any “plain” sports but wanted some real action. Some friends of mine once told me about adventure races and it sounded pretty exciting but too complicated as well. However, when a race was organized close to the place where I was living I just could not miss it, convinced my close friend to enter and we give it a red hot go. I should I say I was terrified as I had never actually done anything like that before and both me and my team mate were completely new to this sport!
Getting ready for the race you need first to find a team mate. Sometimes it’s not easy if your friends are not really outdoors people, but there is always someone who will be interested, do not give up asking your relatives, friends of friends, colleagues. Social media is a great option, join adventure racing, mountain biking, running, orienteering, rogaining communities and invite other people to join you. Otherwise - email us your interest and there are always others who are looking for a team mate too, and we will team you up.
The next step is to prepare your gear. For Women’s Adventure Race you will only need a very limited amount of gear, briefly saying, you need a bike, all bike related items (helmet, repair kit), running shoes and first aid kit. Your kayaking gear is provided . Women’s Adventure Race is designed for novice racers so the only difficulty here is a mountain bike, but you can hire it for the day, more info here. There are some other items you need to have with you during the race like a phone in waterproof bag, full compulsory gear-list is here.
I had a mountain bike that I rode approximately five times during my previous five years of owning it, did not have a helmet, had a very brief idea how to pump up tires, but those questions were answered when they were asked. I had no idea that running shoes can be for road or off-road, I saw some maps before but never really knew how to deal with them and red arrow on the compass according to all of my female logic was supposed to point south (red-warm, in northern hemisphere it’s warm at the south). Most of the equipment was borrowed from some random friends, or urgently bought in the nearest stores.
Did I train before the actual race? No, I had not done any specific training before but I should say being naturally very competitive and fit after years of training in different sport I pushed myself pretty hard all the way. Training would definitely help but you can do it even without any training beforehand (but be careful here, after the race you’ll be hooked, and you will be an adventure junkie forever).
Adventure racing is a sport where you run, ride, paddle and navigate in one event. So it’s quite hard to be very good at everything but at the same time this means that being average at everything means you can be very good at adventure racing.
Depending on a time you can dedicate to your preparation you can plan your trainings but the good news here, whatever sport you’re enjoying the most- walking, jogging, trekking off-road, smashing it on a track, riding road bike, mountain bike, paddling any craft – all of these are perfect sessions for adventure racing and you can do all of them, so you will never get bored. If your goal is to stay healthy and fit, and have fun, you wouldn’t find any better way for reaching this rather than practicing adventure racing and training for it.
These days my training schedule entirely depends on weather and mood. If it’s hot I wouldn’t go for anything else but a paddle, if it’s miserably wet and cold I hit wind trainer or treadmill in the gym or do some resistant session. If it’s pleasant temperatures I’ll go for a run with a map or ride in the bush or on road.
More structured training tips with plans for running, mountain biking and kayaking.
