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Welcome to our series “15 First Adventure Races” which interviews veteran adventure racers on how they got started in the sport. If you’d like further resources, check out our New to AR? page on usara.com for additional material!  Mike setting up to photograph teams during Primal Quest 2018 in British Colombia. What's your name? How old were you when you did your first adventure race? Why did you want to participate? I’m Mike Seroczynski, and I was 41 in my first adventure race. At that time, I had been burnt out from running marathons and triathlons (mostly regional stuff). A race that required teammates and orienteering popped up locally here in northern Michigan, and I was interested in something new. How did you find your first adventure race? Which race did you pick and where was it? I had just raced a half-marathon and was drinking beers and a friend mentioned maybe I should check out this local adventure race in Ludington, MI. He said it had maps, bikes, and paddling, and I was intrigued. I needed to know more! This was in 2007. Did you create your own team or did a team recruit you? I went to Facebook and started looking at my friends who were semi-athletic, mountain biked, trail runners etc. I sent out messages to about six people and sucked three friends into racing on a team with me. The only common denominator was me. We met once before the race to paddle canoes, then we all showed up pre-race night! Two guys, two gals. Did you need to get any new gear, what did you need, where did you find it? I borrowed a mountain bike. I had a compass from the Marine Corps. I was a forward observer in the Marines, so I had decent skills navigating. I got a couple large ziplock for map cases, but had all the other basic gear. The nearest store for anything in Northern Michigan is Walmart's. This is pre-Amazon! How did you train for your first race? Did you need to gain any new skills? I started trail riding! Single track day and night, and I became more confident on single track. My whole life previously was all road biking. I also started to refine my paddling skills in canoes and kayaks. Were there any resources (online or in person) that significantly helped you prepare? Please provide links if applicable. Honestly no. It’s hard to imagine, but back in 2007, YouTube wasn't really a thing.  Mike (far right) with Team Checkpoint Zero at Eco-Challenge: Fiji in 2019. How did the race go?
We came in fourth overall. We hiked sand dunes, and we overcame one teammate with heat exhaustion. There was one CP in the middle of the stinky muddy marsh, and we played Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who had to go punch it! What hooked you on adventure racing? The self-suffering that I put myself in and the accomplishing the course. I had dropped running on pavement years earlier, after destroying my knees, hiking with eighty pound rucks in USMC. It felt great to do something physical. And since I'm constantly in the outdoors, adventure racing was another excuse to be there. Since your first race, name one or two AR highlights you’ve experienced. Well, the Sea to Sea in Florida - I've done it four times. Great race. I also value the connections and friendships I've made from adventure racing. It’s allowed me to travel to New Zealand for GodZone, British Columbia for Primal Quest, Ecuador for AWRS Championships, Belize, and so many places in the USA. When I broke my foot, I pulled my camera out and started taking pictures instead of racing. I’ve also helped design races and put on a few races of my own. Welcome to our series “15 First Adventure Races” which interviews veteran adventure racers on how they got started in the sport. If you’d like further resources, check out our New to AR? page on usara.com for additional material!  Art Cook in one of his first adventure races. What's your name? How old were you when you did your first adventure race? Why did you want to participate? I'm Art Cook, and I started racing at the age of 33. I wanted to adventure race for the first time because I mountain biked and I ran, but I could not swim in a straight line for more than twenty feet. How did you find your first adventure race? Which race did you pick and where was it? I was visiting family in the general area of the Muleshoe Bend Sprint Adventure Race put on by Terra Firma Racing. The park is just outside of Austin, Texas on Lake Travis. I had some friends who were volunteering, and I thought I would join them. It was 1999, and I had watched a couple of other races to that point. I had never done a trail run, a mountain bike race or any kind of competitive paddling. Did you create your own team or did a team recruit you? Like I said, I showed up to volunteer. The race was teams of two. When I arrived my friends told me there was a woman racer who wanted to find a teammate for the co-ed division. She happened to be the number one women's mountain biker in her class in Texas. I said, why not? If she is willing to race with a newbie like me, her expectations must not be too high. Did you need to get any new gear, what did you need, where did you find it? Keep in mind that this was a rather short sprint race with no navigation, so there was little equipment required. Since I was coming from a family event, I brought nothing but a couple of Dasani bottles of water. Luckily my friend loaned me her little pink ladies mountain bike. How did you train for your first race? Did you need to gain any new skills? I have always been a jock and I have always done active jobs to stay fit. I think at the time, I might have been playing softball a couple of nights a week. Occasionally I would go for a bike ride or a run. That was it. Were there any resources (online or in person) that significantly helped you prepare? Please provide links if applicable. I had friends that were good adventure racers, and they gave me pointers.  Art (right), now a co-owner and race director at Too Cool Racing. How did the race go?
We started with a little 5k run, and because neither of us was a competitive runner, we held our own in the middle of the pack. Next up was the 7-mile mountain bike leg. Holy moly! I was holding on for dear life. My teammate, Claire, rode ahead and yelled out directions. She had a rearview mirror on her helmet, and she continuously looked back to make sure I still there. We passed lots of teams on that leg and made it to the paddle in the top 20 of 90 plus teams. The paddle was about a mile long in inflatable kayaks that were pretty miserable. Keeping a straight line was almost impossible, but we held our own to finish in 16th place. I have no doubt that Claire could have been on the podium with a better partner, but I at least think she had a little fun. What hooked you on adventure racing? Although that was a fun first race, what really got me hooked was the navigation and unmarked course racing. I really enjoy that smart racing often trumps fast racing in adventure racing. Since your first race, name one or two AR highlights you’ve experienced. I completed Primal Quest Lake Tahoe in 2003. Since then one of my teammates, Robyn Cantor, became my business partner at Too Cool Racing, LLC and we have produced more than 60 adventure races in Texas and New Mexico. Stay tuned for more from USARA! Visit www.usara.com for more information on adventure racing in the United States. Welcome to our series “15 First Adventure Races” which interviews veteran adventure racers on how they got started in the sport. If you’d like further resources, check out our New to AR? page on usara.com for additional material!  Anna (far right) in one of her first adventure races, on a rollerblading section with her now-husband, Tim! What's your name? How old were you when you did your first adventure race? Why did you want to participate? My name is Anna Nummelin. I was twenty when I did my first race. I initially wanted to try adventure racing because it seemed so drastically different from anything else I had ever experienced in my life and I wanted to see how it would challenge me to grow. How did you find your first adventure race? Which race did you pick and where was it? I did a google search to see if there were any adventure races in my area, and found the 2004 Driftless Zone 12-hour AR in south western Wisconsin. Did you create your own team or did a team recruit you? I raced as a soloist. Did you need to get any new gear, what did you need, where did you find it? I already had a cyclocross bike and a kayak. I found most of the other gear I needed (pack, compass, headlamp) in my parents’ garage. My dad was an avid hunter and had quite a bit of outdoor gear already. How did you train for your first race? Did you need to gain any new skills? I started running 4-5 months before the race. Prior to that, I wasn’t able to run a mile. I started by jogging 1/4 of the way around a 0.25 mile track, alternating walking and jogging a 1/4 loop at a time. Gradually I worked up to 1/2 loop and then a full. Then eventually up to three miles. I was ecstatic! Some days I went to the track and didn’t have time to run, so I just stretched and did a warm-up, but I kept up the routine. 2-3 months before the race I started to mountain bike and kayak once a week. Were there any resources (online or in person) that significantly helped you prepare? Please provide links if applicable. Back then there really weren’t the online resources and communities that there are now. I bought a couple of books:
 Anna (far right) and her team Rib Mountain Adventure Racing finishing the season as #1 ranked team in the US. How did the race go?
Well, let’s just say when I signed up, i was a very naive but enthusiastic college student who couldn’t run a mile, couldn’t read a topographic map, and had no clue what I was getting into. One hour in, I was completely lost and in last place, having spent the entire time swimming/wading through swamp in the dark, getting my maps wet in the process - and accidentally rubbed the finish line location off with my thumb. Another racer was kind enough to show me the way out of the swamp and on to the coasteering section so I could continue. I raced for 12 hours - kayaking, bushwhacking, rappelling, caving - and had the best time! I completed a fraction of the entire course, but had enough stories to last a lifetime. Best. Decision. Ever!!! What hooked you on adventure racing? The raw, thrilling, wildness of adventure racing is what initially got me hooked. I continued racing with my then boyfriend, now husband, Tim Buchholz and it became a shared passion for us both. After every race, we feverishly reviewed the entire course - start to finish- in the car on the way home. Picking it apart and thinking of what we could do to get faster and more efficient. There was always so much! Beyond just training more and getting faster on foot, bike, and paddle, we attended orienteering club meets, though about how to cut down transition time, and how not to lose time because of mental/emotional hang ups. Over time, we upgraded our nutrition, hydration, supplements, and gear. A few years later we won our first race. Then we started winning more regularly. After a couple more years we were undefeated in our state and then in 2016 ranked the #1 team in the USARA series. Being competitive and winning is a big hook, but just as much, I love the adventure racing community. Our fiercest competitors have become our fiercest friends - good people that without question would stop and help you in the middle of a race if you were in trouble, even if it cost them. Races now feel like as much of a reunion of friends as they do a competition. Since your first race, name one or two AR highlights you’ve experienced.
Stay tuned for more from USARA! Visit www.usara.com for more information on adventure racing in the United States. Welcome to our series “15 First Adventure Races” which interviews veteran adventure racers on how they got started in the sport. If you’d like further resources, check out our New to AR? page on usara.com for additional material!  Peter Jolles in an early race in Moab, UT. What's your name? How old were you when you did your first adventure race? Why did you want to participate? I'm Peter Jolles. I was 28 for my first adventure race. My friends and I thought it would be a fun new thing to try. How did you find your first adventure race? Which race did you pick and where was it? I had a friend that had done a Raid Gauloises, among other things, and he knew of a few events going on. I think the first race I did was called the Big South Fork Adventure Race, along the Kentucky/Tennessee border. Did you create your own team or did a team recruit you? My friends and I created a team together. We already ran and biked together on a regular basis so doing a competition was a no-brainer for us. Did you need to get any new gear, what did you need, where did you find it? I don't remember needing any new gear except perhaps a compass. I think I went to REI to get it. How did you train for your first race? Did you need to gain any new skills? I don't remember doing anything special to prepare other than the running and riding I'd already been doing 3-4 times a week. For one of the other early races I did, I needed to learn to rappel but that is fairly uncommon. I knew the basics of navigation but didn't go out of my way to practice them. Were there any resources (online or in person) that significantly helped you prepare? Please provide links if applicable. I had a friend who had done several races before, including several expeditions, and he provided guidance and motivation.  Peter Jolles paddling an outrigger canoe in Eco-Challenge: Fiji 2019. How did the race go?
We had a blast. I remember getting into the main TA sometime in the middle of the night and folks were asking if we were going to stop and sleep for the night. I thought it was a crazy question; we were racing! I think we ended up third in that race. What hooked you on adventure racing? What got me hooked was the combination of mental and physical. I'm not the fastest runner or biker, but I found that I could follow a map pretty well and when all that was combined it became a full body and mind experience. I also liked the team aspect of the sport, where we had to look after not just ourselves but others, too. I find that very motivating. Since your first race, name one or two AR highlights you’ve experienced. The most recent highlight was competing in Eco-Challenge: Fiji in 2019. Through the years I've been able to race all around the world and see places that many people never go. Stay tuned for more from USARA! Visit www.usara.com for more information on adventure racing in the United States. Welcome to our series “15 First Adventure Races” which interviews veteran adventure racers on how they got started in the sport. If you’d like further resources, check out our New to AR? page on usara.com for additional material!  Bryan (far left) in his first adventure race in Highland, IL. What's your name? How old were you when you did your first adventure race? Why did you want to participate? My name is Bryan Niehaus, and at the time of my first adventure race, I was 32 years old. I had some friends that were always trying new activities, and I was one of the few people they knew that could recruit for something like this. How did you find your first adventure race? Which race did you pick and where was it? A couple that my wife and I hung out with found this race in Highland, IL called Goomna, and they needed a third teammate. I thought it sounded like a good adventure. I don't recall the exact length, but it was in the six-hour range, which seemed manageable to me as a non-athlete. Did you create your own team or did a team recruit you? I was recruited for the adventure, and we were all first time racers. I ended up racing with one of those teammates for the next 4-5 years. Did you need to get any new gear, what did you need, where did you find it? I had already been a (very) amateur mountain biker, so I had the bike thing covered. The gear list for a beginner race in summer was pretty minimal so I was able to scrape most things together without a lot of investment. I maybe needed a whistle and an emergency blanket at most. You can see from the picture, I was still racing in cotton shirts, so "good gear" wasn't really a concern of mine. How did you train for your first race? Did you need to gain any new skills? There was absolutely zero training. I wasn't much of an athlete but enjoyed being outdoors. My perception of running came from high school track days where you ran in a circle. That all changed once I found adventure racing. Were there any resources (online or in person) that significantly helped you prepare? Please provide links if applicable. There wasn't anything before the first race, other than discussions and brainstorming with my teammates before the first race. After the first race I fell in love with navigation and joined the St. Louis Orienteering Club to improve those skills.  Bryan racing with his daughter in the Family Division of Castlewood 8-Hr Adventure Race How did the race go?
All things considered, not too bad. We probably finished middle of the pack and we were still friends. I made my first major navigation error when we accidentally skipped a checkpoint that was on the other side of the map fold. It caused us to backtrack on the bike about five miles near the end of the race, which did not make anyone happy. What hooked you on adventure racing? There were two things that kept me in AR. Not being one to exercise, I found myself "accidentally" exercising while playing around outside. The hours fly by while I'm out there and my mind is engaged the entire time; I complete forget about everything outside of the race. The second thing that kept me interested was the constant desire for perfect navigation, which I'm still looking for fourteen years later. Since your first race, name one or two AR highlights you’ve experienced. There are several memories that stick out in my mind. Early on there was a race where we took a bus to the start. We had been studying the map before getting on the bus and I had accidentally left the map at Race HQ. We had studied the map so much the night before that we were able to complete the entire race from memory. More recently in a 24-hr race, we had found ourselves four hours from the cutoff and didn't think we had any chance of making it to the finish line in time. We made it with only three minutes to spare as the sun was coming up. But I think nothing compared to finishing our first 24-hour race in KY. That map is still displayed in my home office. |
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AboutA space for AR musings from the USARA team and guest authors. Ready to race? Check out the rest of our resources on the USARA homepage. Archives
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