|
Survivor-like adventure racers to chart route through local mountain terrain
By Carey King
Hundreds of bikers, hikers and paddlers will converge on Jackson County in early October for a 40-hour, 100-mile race through some of the region’s roughest terrain.
They’ll start out near Lake Glenville, then head north toward Cullowhee and Sylva – crossing whitewater, flat water, Forest Service roads, marked trails, plus bushwhacking their way through some uncharted ones.
“We hand them a bunch of maps and a bunch of coordinates,” said Tony Berwald, Smoky Mountains Adventure Race organizer. While participants are required to carry a compass, they’ll be disqualified if found using GPS devices or their cell phones.
Three-person teams will mountain bike for about half the race, then split the remainder of the course between hiking, running and paddling. Each will have a support crew of one to three people to transport gear between the different legs of the trek.
“The course will be tough. We’ve put in some very challenging sections, particularly on the hike, to test teams’ fitness and navigation,” said course designer Tim Morris. “This area is beautiful, the views from the ridges amazing, and with the leaves changing, this will be an exceptional race experience.”
Only Jackson County rescue workers will know in advance where the race will go.
“You keep the course secret until the day of the race,” Berwald said. “I can’t tell you where headquarters will be, because that would give away the course.”
While teams won’t have to stick to any prescribed route, they must hit 30 checkpoints and stay off major thoroughfares like N.C. 107 and U.S. 23. Most end up taking similar paths, but event organizers can’t say for sure where contestants will head.
“It’s not exactly a spectator sport. You could sit there for a few hours and only see one or two people go by,” Berwald said.
Adventure racing has grown in popularity since a French newsman named Gerard Fusli devised the first grueling event, called the Raid Gaulois, or “Challenge of the Warriors,” in New Zealand in 1989. The captain of the first American team to finish the race, Mark Burnett, got the sport growing in the United States by producing the now best-known adventure race, the Eco-Challenge, as well as the hit television series Survivor.
The U.S. Adventure Racing Association estimates that nearly 30,000 people have competed in the sport, with the number of official events up by a factor of 10 in the past three years. The extent of the challenge varies from “sprints” of three to six hours to treacherous “expedition” races of up to 10 days.
“Every year we’re seeing more and more races and more and more racers,” said Berwald, who two years ago founded a Woodstock, Ga.,-based non-profit called Raceday that works to promote endurance events.
Raceday will use proceeds from the Smoky Mountains race to help children who want to bike, paddle and hike, but lack the funds to do so.
“These sports tend to be very expensive, so they tend to eliminate all but the wealthier kids,” Berwald said. Getting young folks involved in outdoor sports early transfers to healthy lifestyles later, he said.
It also promotes teamwork and creativity.
“The fastest and most fit don’t necessarily win. It’s the teams that work together the best,” he said. “You have to be willing to hook your injured teammate to a tow rope and haul them in. You have to take care of each other.”
While Berwald estimates that between 80 and 90 percent of the sport’s competitors are male, the only teams allowed to participate in national championships are coed. One of those teams – 2002 national champs Lightspeed from Asheville – is expected to be at the Smoky Mountains race.
“They say their girl is stronger than their guys,” Berwald said.
The race will kick off at 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, at Andrews Park, then continue throughout the night, all day and night Saturday, and finish up Sunday afternoon.
Sixty teams have already signed up to compete, with 20 slots still open. Deadline to register is Friday, Sept. 17. For more information, see www. smokymountainsar.org.
|
