NEW TO ADVENTURE RACING - HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT & BRING:

What are you going to be up to:
You will be hiking / running
Cycling (maybe sometimes carrying your bicycle, we call this a “hike-a-bike”)
Kloofing and or Paddling (so you might get wet)
Adventure racing race organisers try to throw in a range of different disciplines to keep it interesting and allow participants to experience as much of what the area has to offer as possible.
Be prepared to go off the beaten track, often. LONG gaiters / long socks or long pants are invaluable to help protect your shins
Carry light and smart. Heavy will just slow you down, especially on the cycle legs
Get a dry bag (beg and borrow OR just use a ziplock bag inside another ziplock bag) – you won’t be regretful to keep food and dry clothes dry
Be sure to carry enough food for each leg – don’t underestimate how important staying well fuelled is. This is NOT a triathlon and the distances are longer than you think when you add the navigational aspect. A “quick 20km” bike ride suddenly takes a good 4 hrs and you need to be sure that you are carrying enough food and water.
You need to drink enough water throughout the race, as you cannot survive on energy drinks and goo. Even a “shorter” 12hr race is too long to survive on goo and sugar high foods – rather think protein and carbs
The organisers provide a transition box for you to keep whatever gear you are not using for the next leg as well as additional food and snacks for the team. Rolls & wraps go down well in-between legs, nuts / fruit / biltong and droewors are great sustainable snacks. Pre-pack snacks into small bags so you only carry what you need for each leg – no point in carrying a kg of droewors for a whole race.
Remember to pack enough food and snacks in each transition box – you can always take home what you done eat
Get you bicycle serviced or checked before your race – make sure that your brakes are working that you have slime in your tyres (even if they not tubeless, get slime put in)

Tricks of the trade:
Rennies are amazing for cramps – pop one the minute you feel the cramp and all sorted
Shin socks are a prefect more cost-effective substitute for long gaiters
Arm sleeves are great way to take the chill off and protect you from the sun
Keep a close eye on the weather forecasts leading up to the race so you know what to pack
A good quality Rain jacket is a privilege, but to be honest, even those have a saturation point, don’t discard the value of a black bag with pre-cut out neck and arm holes. It’s the only thing that will keep you truly dry and its light to carry
Throw clean socks into your transition box, it's amazing what fresh socks can do for team morale
Don’t underestimate the importance of foot management, especially when it's wet. (you can put a bit of baby powder into your socks before you roll them up, this really helps dry out your feet as you go)
If you know you get blisters – pack plenty plasters and lots of vaseline to rub between toes.
Baby bum cream is the BEST chaff cream out there (bebanthen / sudocream)
Carry extra batteries for your headlamp
Be sure to keep your lips hydrated, many people struggle with sores that develop from long hours of sucking on a bladder pipe
Be sure to have your navigator DRAW out the nav plan on the map before each leg, so that you can follow a clear line. Once you are on the go it's easy to forget where you are in your map.
Make yourself a BIKE map board – navigating on the bike is tough enough, you want to have your navigator stay in the map as you go and not stop every now and again to see where you are

DIY MAPBOARD

Check Points (CP’s) are not designed to trick you, if it’s not relatively obvious you probably not in the correct place
Race organisers won’t take you somewhere extremely unsafe, if you find yourself on a cliff edge you probably went wrong somewhere, backtrack to your last confirmed location on your map and try again.
Remember this is a TEAM event – listen to your team members and move at the slowest members’ pace. If 1 member of the team bails out your team gets a DNF (did not finish) - so getting your whole team to the finish line should be your number 1 priority.
Regularly check in with each other so see how everyone is feeling and gage when to rest and when to push based on the strength of the full team.
If you are serious about racing – discuss your transition strategy. Time passes very quickly in transition. Discuss who does what. Remember that your navigator must plan your next route, so be sure to take care of him/her too. Offer to fill water bottles/ bladder / pack food etc – so that they can focus on the map.
A quick check in as you leave transition is critical – just to ensure everyone is carrying the necessary gear for the next leg – don’t get caught out later (if you know you are going into the dark and cold – does everyone have their headlamp and warm top?)
Pack an “in-case” after race dinner - Many times races finish at strange times (like early hours of the morning) where finding food isn’t possible, make sure you and your team always pack food for after the race as a just in case.
Pack essential after race beers – yes you will be tired but a team beer to celebrate is the perfect way to end the race together

Why do we get information so last minute?
Its purely due to the navigational aspect of the sport
Its to try discouraging teams from working out where the race will go and thus having a navigational advantage – race directors withhold as much information as possible until the last minute
Never feel shy to send questions to your race organizer – they usually do what they can to answer whatever questions you have.

What is covered in the race briefing?
Teams are given their race booklets, this tells them what the various disciplines they will be required to do as well as the distances.
This is given to the teams the evening before so that they can plan and pack their supplies and gear accordingly. (they need to know what gear to carry when)
For some of the much longer races the splits are sent out earlier, but for many of the smaller races the first time you get these splits is the evening before. (again this is just to prevent those seasoned navigators from working out where the route will go) Safety, general rules, out of bounds areas as well as anything unusual or unique to the race is addressed at this point.
Maps are only given out the morning of each race (usually 15-30min before the race starts so navigators can orientate themselves and plan)


Also check out some advice from RedBull 6 things every novice adventure racer should know before their first event

EPIC INFO FROM THE INTERNATIONAL PRO’s

What is Adventure Racing?
Watch this fantastic video to explain this incredible sport.

A documentary on Nathan Farve and his team – the top AR team in the world – its got some great advice about team dynamics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=18UNzsSlKiQ&feature=youtu.be

Transition – another race discipline
AR (Adam Rose) on AR explains it

Advice from women of AR
Great inspiration from Bend Racing. Adventure racing men, you need to watch this! Women is NOT your compulsory gear.