NYARA 6hr Fools Rogaine

 By Sarah Leshner

Dave at 1st CP

Yesterday I did my first official adventure race -- the 6hr Fool's Rogaine in Ringwood NJ held by NYARA. It was AWESOME!!  I highly recommend adventure racing for anyone looking for a new kind of challenge. I didn't even know what adventure racing was until I was approached by Champion System, which is a sponsor of the ACT (Athletic Celebrity Team).  I am on that team primarily to compete in triathlons, and because I was on The Amazing Race on CBS a couple of years ago. Champion System then invited me to be part of a 4-woman all ex-reality TV team to compete in the 26hr Rev3 Epic Adventure Race (same organization as Rev3 triathlons, which I love). The idea is to show the world we're tougher than people think... Good luck to us :)

Points on Map

Anyway, I did the race this weekend as prep for that race. An adventure race is a multi-disciplinary search through a park or woods for points / controls that have been hidden... typically, you have some type of paddle section (canoe / kayak), mountain biking, and running. The race I did consisted of a bike portion with 9 hidden "controls" and a portion on foot with 25 controls. Oh, but to make it more challenging, the map we were given (you always use a topographical map to navigate) had 100 points marked on it!!!!  (meaning, 75 points were fake)   Ugggghhhhh April Fools.

I raced with a friend who was also a novice. The first challenge we had was renting mountain bikes (not one shop in Manhattan would rent them)... then grocery shopping for what we thought we may want to eat during 6hrs of racing (we burned 24,000 calories, so we needed more than just gels and gu's)... figuring out appropriate wardrobe, etc. Once we arrived and checked in, I was pretty intimidated and afraid we wouldn't be able to find any of the points. My spirits quickly picked up, though :)

Happy Finisher

The whole experience really reminded me of The Amazing Race. The dynamic of having to work with your partner and not self-destruct... the sense of unknown and not having any idea what you might encounter... and most importantly, the rush of finally finding a point!  That is the best feeling in the world. You've been searching and searching and finally you come upon it... it´s just like the rush of finding a cluebox on The Amazing Race (minus the cameras in your face and chance to win a million dollars).  You feel so excited, so proud, so motivated to keep going.

We had an AMAZING experience, and both decided we want to do another adventure race soon!  I think my friend is now signing up for the Rev3 Epic Adventure Race too!