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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!  Erl (far right) with WEDALI teammates Justin, Andrea, and Jason. What's your name? How old were you when you did your first adventure race? Why did you want to participate? Scott Erlandson (most people call me Erl), I was about 33 when I did my first AR. I had seen Eco-Challenge British Columbia on TV and was drawn to the teamwork aspect across multiple sports that AR required. I was running road marathons at the time and wanted to try another sport that wasn’t so hard on my body. How did you find your first adventure race? Which race did you pick and where was it? There was a quarterly magazine called Midwest Sports that I received. The magazine included an events calendar for Minnesota and Wisconsin. There was only one adventure race listed and that was a six-hour race at Camp Ihduhapi, just west of Minneapolis. Did you create your own team or did a team recruit you? My Uncle Roe was a triathlete so I asked him to be my teammate. The race was four-person teams only, but the Race Directors helped pair everyone up so the two of us were placed on a team with two others. I don’t remember much about our other two teammates - so they weren’t terrible! Did you need to get any new gear, what did you need, where did you find it? I had a decent mountain bike already, but I bought a Camelbak Mule for my race pack from REI. How did you train for your first race? Did you need to gain any new skills? I was already into running road marathons so I had pretty good fitness, but I added in some bike miles as well. The paddling section in the race was pretty short and my uncle and I felt good about our paddle skills for that distance. Were there any resources (online or in person) that significantly helped you prepare? Please provide links if applicable. I didn’t find anything. After the Ihduhapi race, I wanted to get more involved in AR, so I went to an adventure racing indoor climbing clinic put on by some former Eco-Challenge racers. That’s where I met a guy named Paul, and after the clinic we decided to do a race together. The following weekend, the Minnesota Orienteering Club hosted a navigation clinic, and Paul met another guy named Justin. I reached out to another adventure racer named Amy who I had met at Camp Ihduhapi. So myself, Paul, Amy and Justin formed a team called “We Eat Dust And Like It” which eventually evolved into WEDALI.  Erl (far right) with teammates Andrei and Emily at the start of the 2017 USARA National Champs. How did the race go?
So, we finished under our own power, but were past the cutoff and the finish line had already been taken down and put away. All of the post-race food was gone and the RDs were about to leave. I don’t even think we found half of the checkpoints. Our team just had a lot of fun together on the course. Before the race, I thought the checkpoints would all be on the trail, but most of them were off-trail, and I wasn’t quite ready for that. What hooked you on adventure racing? Honestly, based on my team's experience at our first race, I should have hated it. But I didn’t. Adventure racing was just so different from anything else I had experienced so far. I really enjoyed being in remote wilderness areas with just my team to rely on. I liked all of the different sports that went into AR and wanted to improve in each sport. I liked developing good teamwork and being a good teammate. AR is just fun to me. Since your first race, name one or two AR highlights you’ve experienced. My most treasured AR memories are all of the amazing teammates I have gotten to race with, including meeting my wife! I have gotten to travel all across the US and also internationally for races. Adventure race directors always find the most interesting spots, even in areas that might seem boring on paper. It is so cool to explore new parts of each state or country that most people don’t get to see. Also WEDALI started in 2003, and won USARA National Champs in 2010 and 2012 with myself, Justin, and his wife Molly. Those wins were a highlight because we all started at the same time and worked our way up together. 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!  Phil (far right) at his first Berryman Adventure Race in 2004. What's your name? How old were you when you did your first adventure race? Why did you want to participate? I’m Phil Nicolas, and I was about 25-years-old when I did my first adventure race, around my birthday in 2000, I believe. I saw a flyer at work and thought that this 'event' looked pretty cool; adventure suited me well and it looked exciting. How did you find your first adventure race? Which race did you pick and where was it? I saw the flyer on the wall for the Extreme Heart Challenge in Ponca, Nebraska. It was the second running of the sixteen-hour race directed by Dave Sly and my curiosity got the best of me. Did you create your own team or did a team recruit you? I created my own team - I asked my coworker (who happened to be standing next to me), then he asked a friend of his, and then I asked my sister to join. We all agreed that it sounded like fun. Did you need to get any new gear, what did you need, where did you find it? I didn't own a bike at the time. I bought one the week prior to the race, and I used an old backpack of mine that fit everything. I had never navigated anything before, so I bought my first compass, which I still have. Also, I needed to purchase a handlebar-mounted light, which turned out to be worthless! How did you train for your first race? Did you need to gain any new skills? I ran a couple miles per week in the two weeks leading up and a few laps around the nearby corn field - literally four miles total. I rode around those couple corn sections a few days before the race and thought "I'm good to go!" Our team had no plan for navigator or navigation in general; no one on the team had any idea what we were doing. We knew about a rope section and I was pretty comfortable with ropes, so no issue there! I was thinking: Adventure! Were there any resources (online or in person) that significantly helped you prepare? Please provide links if applicable. Internet information was minimal; those were the days when you had to mail in your registration check before the deadline - <yup> old school mail-in registrations.  Phil (far left) and teammate Kevin at the finish line of Untamed New England 2018. How did the race go?
Our first race was a total bust, quite predictably really. Two teammates quit after the first section, my sister and I were allowed to continue as a 2-person team. I was the only one on the team who had a clue how to open and read a map, this is why I was always the navigator in the early years. That first race, I was not aware we could write on the map, and when we would get close to the area of a checkpoint, I would eyeball the checkpoint location and say, “It should be around here somewhere,” and we would search. We were the last two racers to cross the finish line, the race personnel dropped the banner, packed up and that was it! I had packed 2 Gatorades and 2 sandwiches for 16 plus hours of activity, and I was starving. What hooked you on adventure racing? My sister and I crossed that finish line together; my wife was waiting for me and that continues to be a driving force for me when I experience low times in races today. That race kicked my butt and I knew I could better, and yet I had such a blast challenging myself in the outdoors, I knew beyond a doubt, I wanted to do it again. I talked about it for the next month to everyone that would listen. Since your first race, name one or two AR highlights you’ve experienced. There are many memories and lessons I've learned from AR. I'll never forget the beautiful pristine high alpine meadows of my first expedition race in the western Kootenays, and also the lesson on the importance of giving 100% and racing our own race. Stay tuned for more from USARA! Visit www.usara.com for more information on adventure racing in the United States. |
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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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