http://community.active.com/blogs/teamJoseph

Anyone else do one or know anything about adventure racing?

As you've seen in my blog, I love adventure racing. I only get to do a couple a year and most likely only 1 this year with all the tri-s, but it's a really fun, intense, exhausting experience. I tend to do ones in the woods, but there are also "urban" ones that can be done around a city. Sometimes they include rollerblading or scooters. The woodys (i think i just made up this word) ones tend to have orienteering (plotting points on a topo map and using a compass to get around), mountain biking (on and off-road), canoeing/kayaking, hiking/running. Our navigator (Kyle) got a one-on-one lesson about orienteering and that helped us a ton. We were really horrible at the beginning. Even though we aren't a top competitive team, it's an awesome event. We really enjoy them. here's a link to ARs around the country...ar calender

Occasionally I like to look at the Trailblazers website.

http://www.trailblazerar.com/

Oh, and I've been trying to talk a friend into doing the Muddy Buddy race. It's not really an AR, but kind of a similar idea.

http://www.muddybuddy.com/

Some highlights include seeing my sister cheer me on at one of the checkpoints at 2 in the morning; the sensation of mountain biking 20 hours into a race; hallucinations-- my partner saw mice...lots of mice...running across the trail, and I saw lots of suitcases just sitting out in the fields; getting lost; doing a tyrolean traverse across a canyon in the pitch dark; rappelling down a cliff as a helicopter rose me on the other side (unfortunately it was a medical helicopter for another racer that ran into problems on top of that cliff).

Needless to say, it really is a blast. Unfortunately my team has not raced since 2004...I have to get my teammates motivated again!

I have never done an urban race before but the High Trek series looks pretty fun: http://www.active.com/outdoors/Articles/Amazing_Race__Home_Edition.htm