Six Star Magazine Six Star Magazine Fall 2018 | Page 21

These events
attract athletes
of all skill and
experience levels,
and feature
a collegial,
community-
minded vibe.
This summer, the Subaru Bruce Peninsula Multisport
Race attracted 300 competitors to this picturesque setting,
some 270 kilometres northwest of Toronto. Athletes of all
abilities and experience levels ran, biked and paddled their
way through courses of varying difficulty. Some competed
alone, others with a partner. Some competitors were lifelong
cyclists, others runners.
“These races are amazing because of the athletes
involved,” says Karine Corbeil of Montreal, winner of the
100-km long Buff Course in the Female Solo category. “It’s
not a professional sport, so there’s a lot of enjoyment in just
competing.”
In its traditional form, adventure racing, also referred to as
expedition or multisport racing, combines the disciplines of
orienteering, paddling, trekking and cycling. The races can
take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to complete. A
typical team has four members, especially in longer races; at
events such as the Subaru Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race,
athletes can compete in pairs or on their own.
The exact lineage of this type of pursuit is open to
debate, but most point to the 1968 Karrimor International
Mountain Marathon as the event that set the stage for
modern adventure racing. In the infamous race, teams of
two had to traverse the equivalent of two marathons through
mountainous terrain, while carrying their own equipment.
To make matters more challenging, the teams weren’t given
the route until race day.
The sport’s profile grew dramatically when, in 1989, the
Raid, sponsored by a French tobacco firm no less, drew
teams from across the world to New Zealand. Here, they were
greeted with a weeklong challenge that saw teams race on
foot, in rafts, in canoes and on horseback. In these early days,
the sport sometimes took the notion of “challenge” too far.
In 2001, at the inaugural Discovery Channel World
Championship, the final race of what was to be an annual
international competition known as the Adventure Racing
World Series (ARWS), disaster nearly struck due to poor
logistics. The 400-km course through the Swiss Alps saw
competitors woefully under-dressed for the nearly 62,000
feet of elevation changes and competitors suffered greatly
as a result.
Here in Canada, single-day sprint-style events, such as the
Subaru Bruce Peninsula Race and the Pain in the Assiniboine
in Manitoba, dominate the adventure racing landscape.
These events attract athletes of all skill and experience levels,
and feature a collegial, community-minded vibe.
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