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The seasoned members of the St. Louis Orienteering Club used to huddle around campfires and dream about putting on an adventure race—a sport that requires competitors to trek, paddle, mountain bike, and read maps. “The joke was that we didn’t want to put it on because we all wanted to race in it,” says Nathan Graves, a SLOC board member.
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Now they’re finally doing it.
The Creve Coeur 4—so named because racers have four hours to complete it—is scheduled for August 23 at Creve Coeur Lake Park. Folks of all skill levels are encouraged to register by August 8. You can register as a solo or as a team of up to four members.
As is customary for this sport, the maps won’t be available until right before the race, but Graves confirms the basic structure: a trekking section, a mountain biking section, and a paddling section. The average team will spend about 80 minutes on each, he estimates. For advanced racers who have time left on the clock, there will be a bonus section that requires some fairly technical map skills (see the term “UTM” on this glossary page).
Graves says the rule of thumb is that if you can finish a 5K run, you can finish a short adventure race such as the Creve Coeur 4. (In this way, it’s a bit more approachable than the annual Castlewood 8.) And the park itself, which features a naturally formed lake, is a great place to give the sport a try. “It’s got plenty of flat trails and some nice, fast singletrack built by GORC [Gateway Off-Road Cyclists],” he says. “And you get some good orienteering—not in deep woods, but enough features to keep it interesting.”
To learn more about rules, required gear, and other logistics, see the Creve Coeur 4 event page here.
