Scouting for a venue and organising your own adventure race

Adri's team, Lickety Split, are organising an adventure race later this year. They have put in a lot of time and preparation scouting and planning this event. Adri tells of her experiences and learnings and her forway into navigation.

I joined Team Lickety Split in April 2009, not really knowing anything about the sport other than you get to see our country at its beautiful best. My more 'mature' team members slowly introduced me to terminology such as "transition", "legs", "checkpoints", "optional points", "breakfast stop", "elevensies" and a whole lot more on the joys of life outside the city.

Navigation/map reading was always something left for our 2 very capable navigators in the team. But I am curious by nature, and like to know whats happening, so I signed up for one of Lisa's navigational courses on a July week night from 18h30 - 21h30.

For almost a year Team Lickety Split shared their 'call' to organise their own race. And it wasn't till January this year that one of the team members visited a calm and un-raced territory and claimed it as our race area for the event we call: Balele Tracks.

How do you scout for an area to organise a race??? I'd say it's more a question of how to connect-the-dots and curiosity about the area that urges you to organise a race. You find a good start/ finishing spot and then start networking with local farmers and the tourism board, who are generally very keen to help promote the area and assist in the organising of the event.

So, with most things in place and maps organised, we set out to 'do' our own race on the 17th & 18th July. This was a 'fool-proof test', with me as the novice navigator.

And wow, what a joy. I really enjoyed it. Picking routes, reading the topographical details and comparing it to what I see around me. Working out the average time spent on foot per kilometer (bikes are easier with spedo's. And pedo's... I havent tried yet). Explaining to my team what I plan on doing next and where we are heading. As much as I like to know where we are, I now had to keep the team in-the-loop too. Communication is so important in this sport to make sure everyone is on the same page and that they have the same goal in mind.

So yes, I broke the ice with regards to navigation and can only encourage others to take the bull by the horns and deal with it once & for all!

Your racing will be a whole lot different, your Sunday afternoon stroll in the local park will be different. You'll see the (mostly) logic behind the roads in and around our country and how these roads largely follow topographical lines, etc.

Here's to navigation and organising your own race!

       Adri van der Westhuyzen