Adventure racing: A beginner’s guide for St. Louisans

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The United States Adventure Racing Association summarizes its rugged, multimodal team sport as “a scavenger hunt with a clock.” 

Although AR events vary, they’re all composed of a sequence of “sections,” each requiring a specific mode of travel: trekking, mountain biking, or paddling. When a team arrives at a section, its members (who must move as a pack) use a topo map and a list of clues—kept secret until racetime—to embark on the fastest way of finding various “checkpoints” hidden in that section. Finding one checkpoint earns one point for the team. But for every minute they arrive at the finish line past the cutoff time, they lose a point. Efficiency and strategy, therefore, are key.

Intimidated? Don’t be, says Nathan Graves, a St. Louis County resident who competes on a national level. “If you like to be outside, this is for you,” he says. “In these events, there’s something for everyone. You don’t have to be an uber athlete.” Nor must you travel to the Dominican Republic, as the characters in the 2024 movie Arthur the King do: Several races take place annually in Missouri. These include the Castlewood 8-Hour Adventure Race, which is put on by the Alpine Shop in St. Louis County and this year is set for Dec. 7. 

That race is organized by Jeff and Carrie Sona, who themselves have excelled in USARA competitions. Jeff Sona says that AR races may put you in the “grossest” situations—say, on a steep slope, in thick brush, in the rain, exhausted, hungry, failing to find a checkpoint—but you’re working through it with your teammates, which is the fun of it: a grueling-yet-bond-forging kind of fun. “The party atmosphere that occurs afterward is often just as much fun as the race itself,” Sona says. 

Here are some tips for getting started.

Courtesy of Alpine Shop. Photography by Dan Singer.

Courtesy of Alpine Shop. Photography by Dan Singer.

Start with orienteering

Knowing how to navigate the physical world by using a paper map and compass is the “basis and backbone of all adventure racing,” Sona says. “It’s easy to bike or run or paddle fast, but if you can’t read a map, none of it matters.” A great way to learn—one that’s simple, effective, and low-cost—is to try your hand at a meet held by the St. Louis Orienteering Club, Sona says. There you can gain not only a facility with a compass and map but also a healthy respect for terrain. “The hard part for newbie teams,” Sona observes, “is that things on a map look easy to find, but when you’re out there in the woods just busting through, it’s a lot harder.” You can find a list of O-Club meets here. 

Find a teammate (or teammates)

An AR team is only as fast as its slowest member. That said, Sona says that when looking for someone to do this sport with, be it a friend or family member, it should be someone with whom you can communicate and be honest. “I’ve seen teams come unglued,” Sona says, “and the teammates start blaming one another.” You want a teammate who will not only help you during a tough moment but also be willing to put ego aside and accept help. If you can’t find someone in your social circle, Graves suggests showing up at events put on by St. Louis-area trekking, paddling, or biking clubs (e.g., the O-Club, Gateway Off-Road Cyclists, or Terrain Trail Runners) and meet folks that way. 

Rent or borrow gear at first

Elite AR athletes will drop thousands of dollars on gear in order to gain an edge, but newbies don’t have to. Again, each race is different, but consider the Castlewood 8. The organizers provide your watercraft and your life vest, plus your paddle if you don’t bring your own. It’s your responsibility to bring a mountain bike, but you can also rent one by the day (for example, at SBR or Big Shark), and you must bring a helmet and flashing red rear light. Then there’s a whole list of mandatory safety gear; each team must have a first aid kit, for instance, and each individual racer must have snacks, water, warm clothes, a headlamp, a whistle, etc. You can see the entire gear list for the 2024 Castlewood 8 here. But a lot of this equipment can be bought on the cheap or simply borrowed. Graves encourages interested newbies to reach out to those in the scene for tips and advice on gear—for example, through the O-Club. “The AR community is just wonderful,” he says. “I want people to feel we’re accessible.”

Practice the disciplines if you can

Graves says it’s common for beginners to show up to their first race having never practiced one of the disciplines; for example, they’ve never been in a canoe or on a mountain bike. Getting comfortable with those skills before race day is preferable, and there are many ways to do it: GORC lists hundreds of miles of MTB trails, and you can learn how to paddle at Creve Coeur Lake. “But I wouldn’t tell someone not to do a race because they’ve never paddled in a canoe before,” he adds. He says as far as physical fitness goes, a rough rule of thumb is that, if you can already run a 5k, you can run a short adventure race. If you can run a 10k, you can run an eight- to 10-hour adventure race. Graves points out, however, that “a person who can run fast but runs in the wrong direction doesn’t do as well as someone who walks in the right direction every time.” And the more modest your goal, the less training you need—which leads to the final piece of advice below.

Sign up for a race and be clear about your goal

You can find upcoming adventures races held in the Midwest here, here, and here but there are three prominent ones held in Missouri each year: 

• The Castlewood 8, which is typically held in St. Louis County but doesn’t necessarily pass through the eponymous state park
• The Berryman Adventure, commonly held in or around the Berryman Trail in Washington County
• Off Road Rage Adventure Race, held for the last few years at the Lake of the Ozarks

Wherever you start, all teams should set an intention beforehand, Graves suggests. “Are you trying to be competitive or just get experience?” he says. “Be thoughtful about what your goals are when you’re going out.” 

This year’s Castlewood 8, Sona says, will have no mandatory checkpoints, and there will be plenty of shortcuts for those who care less about racking up points and more about merely finishing. 

And you can expect to feel the whole gamut of human emotions out on the course, he says: “You’re pissed. You’re ecstatic. I love you. I hate you. All of it. And sometimes adventure racing is just dealing with armpit-high stinging nettle in a rainstorm. But you’re so happy when you get through it.”