What is adventure racing? Not many people have any idea. In fact, when I try to explain it, the response
I usually get is a blank stare or a nodding of the head in such a way that I know they have no idea what I’m talking about.

So when our son, Thomas, told us he was coming to New Hampshire from California, along with his three teammates, to race in the “Untamed New England” Adventure Race, we jumped at the chance to see him again and to also see what adventure racing is all about – close up. Off we go, my wife (Ann) and I, to northern New Hampshire to take a look.

Even though our son is a veteran racer, with him living on the west coast and us on the east, we just have not had the opportunity to see him perform in person. I’ve seen the pictures, but pictures do not tell the real story.
Thomas and his teammates “Track Me 360” from northern California raced against some 50 plus teams through the untamed parts of northern New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. The teams came from New Hampshire, Connecticut, North Carolina, Pennsylvania,
Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia, New York, Maryland, Maine, New Mexico, Arizona, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Australia, South Africa, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

Ok, so it’s a race through the wilderness of New England, you might say – now I get it. Well, no, I don’t
think so. It is not just a race; it’s a test of all of a person’s physical and mental capacities. First, when you enter the race the only information you get from the
race committee is when the race is, where the starting line will be, and when to be there. In this case it was
up on the cliffs of the Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

The pre-race literature also tells you to bring your mountain bike, paddles for kayaking and canoeing, your climbing gear to get up and down the side of a mountain,
a sufficient amount of food, clothing, repair kits, edicines, and orienteering skills because you are going to be out in the wilderness for almost three days of nonstop racing.

Once you arrive at race headquarters on race day, all you get from the committee is a set of topographical
maps made specifically for orienteering. These maps show accurate and detailed terrain variations and
are used by the racers to plot their path to each checkpoint they must pass to stay in the race. So, with
about an hour or two before race time, you have the maps, but they don’t show the checkpoints. You
get a separate set of instructions that gives you certain coordinates for the checkpoints that must be found on the orienteering maps.

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