Racing for adventure Transcript

Liz Dail – Adventure Race

WEB HEADLINE

Racing for adventure

WEB INFO

On your mark… Get set… Go! (Just don’t sprint!) These racers had to pace themselves for a two to four hour race this past weekend. Liz Dail was at the Bucket Club in Fredericton to find out more about the sport of adventure racing. The Frigid River Fall Adventure Race includes biking, canoeing, and hiking in teams of two.

VO

Biking… Hiking… And canoeing on a cold misty morning might not sound like fun to some people. But for these adventurers, that’s exactly what it is. Fourteen teams ran, biked, and canoed for the love of adventure in the annual Frigid River Fall Adventure Race at the Fredericton Bucket Club. But adventure wasn’t the only goal for these high school kids.

CLIP – Tristan Farnham and Jamie McMurtrie, FHS students

“Mostly for fun. We’re pretty athletic. We like to compete.”

“I don’t know about winning but (We can try and win) and I think we’ll do pretty well.”

VO

Although competition was a driving force during the race, Jeremy Mathers, an adventure racer, says the sport is more enjoyable when competition isn’t the main focus.

CLIP – Jeremy Mathers, Adventure Racer and Race Volunteer

“I would argue that the people who aren’t as competitive enjoy it more than the competitive people. The competitive people enjoy the competition but it’s a lot more painful and difficult to try and do this competitively because there’s a lot of competition. The top teams today wouldn’t have really rested at all for the entire four hours and they were paddling, running, and biking the rest of the time.”

VO

Bob Matthews started this race three years ago. He plans the race, places the markers, and does the course himself. The goal is to gain the most amount of points throughout the course. You are given a map and a punch card. But racers say it’s not what you take into the course, it’s what you take out of it.

CLIP – Jeremy Mathers, Adventure Racer and Race Volunteer

“They’re all really good skills to have as a person if you ever get lost in the middle of the woods, an adventure racer would make an adventure out of it and find something neat and then find the nearest road.”

VO

Having the best time, getting all the markers, and attempting for the bonus points are all factors in the final outcome of the race.

STAND UP

Even though the shortest race might seem intimidating to some people, many of these types of adventure races are longer, ranging anywhere from 8 hours to 10 days. A cash prize of $200 was given to the winners of the four hour race along with a $600 bonus for completing all the check points along the course. The winners didn’t finish with the best time but they had the most points. Clearly racing in the name of adventure, isn’t about crossing the finish line first, it’s about pushing your limits. For STU Journalism, I’m Liz Dail in Fredericton.

Short URL: http://www.newbrunswickbeacon.ca/?p=1143

Posted by Liz Dail on Oct 7, 2009. Filed under Transcripts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.