Alaskan Adventure Racing

Live for adventure? Love to race? Maybe you should fuse the two and try an Adventure Race. If the thought of navigating a wilderness course while hiking, trail running, climbing, biking, paddling, and maybe even rappelling sounds like your idea of a good time, adventure racing might be just what you’ve been missing.

Renee Wickman found out what she was made of by competing in the EGADS Women’s Alaska Adventure Race with two friends. She details it for The Blogging Post below. Congrats on finishing ladies! With or without a DQ–you all rock.

“My two girlfriends and I decided to team up and participate in the EGADS Women’s Adventure Race. For three type A females, we did great not killing each other and we also did great getting lost for three hours of the six hour race. We all work in the computer industry, two of us are active duty AF and the other is recently retired so we thought we could handle the challenge. During our three hours of being lost in the Alaska wilds, we biked in marshy terrain, walked through muddy ATV trails, and literally bush-wacked with our bikes on our shoulders. At one point, we were excited to see another team but they were on the other side of a steep ravine. They told us we couldn’t cross the stream and make it up the 75% grade hill with our bikes in tow but after trudging through everything and anything for a couple hours already, we weren’t giving up. We needed to make up the time we lost while being lost before getting disqualified. I was lucky enough to have a light bike so I managed to throw it on my shoulder and pull myself/crawl up the hill from tree to tree, taking a breather at each tree. One girlfriend literally dragged her new $500 bike from the tire as she crawled up the hill. She and I made it to the top and after a couple breaths, we went down to help our retiree. We grabbed her bike at both ends and pushed it up the hill while she followed. Ultimately, we went over our six hour time limit and were disqualified but we survived the extreme physical challenge and managed to not get eaten by bears which apparently were nearby at one point. Our retiree didn’t want to alarm us when she heard huffing noises. That explained the constant ringing of her bear bells!”