Adventure Race Set in Angel Fire

Multisport event requires a ‘reasonably fit’ body and a good sense of direction

Got mountain bike, hiking boots, kayak and compass?

Put them altogether with brains and a little stamina to enter a Quest for Fire, New Mexico’s first adventure race May 21 in Angel Fire.

Quest for Fire, sponsored by the Albuquerque-based New Mexico Adventure Racing Club, features 55 miles of mountain biking, hiking, kayaking and a surprise event. Participants can do the event solo or with one, two or three friends as a team.

The trick is everyone on the team has to finish the entire course, according to Steve Prickett, vice president of the year-old NMARC.

Adventure racers tackle multiple sports, much like triathletes, with a lot of extra challenges thrown in.

For one thing, participants don’t even know the start line for races until the night before the event.

For another, they have to be good map readers to find the rest of the route and the finish line.

Participants are handed blank topography maps and a set of checkpoints they have to plot on the map. “Orienteering is one part of adventure racing,” Prickett, a runner, said.

Sometimes the maps are old, which means trails may have changed. That happened at a club training event in the Sandias last week. The Forest Service had rerouted a trail and it didn’t match the racers’ maps. “That’s another part of the race you have to build into your thinking,” Prickett said.

“You have to be adaptive,” he added. “If there’s a big mountain between checkpoint A and B, going straight will be quickest but going over the mountain may sap all you energy.”

So sometimes the longer route is smarter.

Adventure racing means brains can win out over brawn, Prickett said. “That’s the beauty of adventure racing is literally being able to make decisions on the fly,” he said.

Adventure races are primarily off-road and since no one on a team is counted unless all the team finishes, cooperation is the key to success. Prickett has seen a strong mountain biker pull a weaker teammate over obstacles with a bungee cord. “Anything you can do to help your teammate is OK,” he said. “The idea is to get the whole team across.”

Adventure races are held around the world. Some involve rappelling, mountaineering, paddling, climbing and trail running. Races can be up to 100 miles long, according to the U.S. Adventure Racing Association, which tracks events around the nation.

Prickett started the New Mexico Adventure Racing Club, the first in the state, last year with fellow racer and middle school teacher Debbie McFarland. The club has about 35 members, most from Albuquerque, but are open to members from anywhere in the state. The club holds monthly training events to help racers. In March, they attended the New Mexico Orienteers event to help improve navigation skills.

Prickett said Quest for Fire is a good event for first-time adventure racers as long as they’re “reasonably fit.”

“If you are training three days a week one hour in biking or hiking and then spend three hours on Saturday doing all of them, you can finish the race,” he said. “You have to have some proficiency in mountain biking and kayaking and orienteering. You can’t come off the couch and do the race.”

Participants have to show up in Angel Fire the night before the event to find out where they start and for other instructions. Volunteers along the route will ensure “folks don’t get dangerously lost,” he said.

But don’t expect them to redirect you to the race course. “We’re not going to do it for you,” Prickett said. “That’s not the point.”

For an information packet on Quest for Fire, write NMARC, 7 Camino Segundo Road, Unit 2, Albuquerque, NM 87123, e-mail dmcfa10@aol.com or visit the Web site at www.nmarc.org.