the Adventure Lifestyle magazine

• • Adventure racer. personal trainer. co­ founder of Adventure Training Consultants. instructor with Girt Teams Adventure Training -Eco-Challenge 1995. Utah. Team Spooky Bear -Raid Gauloises 1995. Patagonia. Team Dockers support member -Eco-Challenge 1996. British Columbia. Team Lycra Power -Raid Gauloises 1997. South Africa. Team Lestra Sport -Raid Gauloises 1998. Ecuador. Team Robert Forster Physical Therapy (Forster was a physical therapist to Pete Sampras and Olympian Jackie Joyner Kersey.) ��SUႠ!Je.Ⴀ䊉�Nl'm a jack-of-all-trades. I run fast. can carry a lot of weight. and am a competent climber and mountain biker. And I'm pretty good with horses. I'm not an expert at any. but competent at all adventure racing disciplines. You have to be to do well in these races." tice navigating class III to V rapids, go on climbing trips, string events together over a weekend. You need to toughen your feet by going on 50- to 80-mile humps over a weekend, and practice sleep deprivation. Top­ level competitive teams get financial help from corporations. They also have been doing it long enough that they are practicing, as opposed to learning, skills. BLUE: WHAT DOES THE COMPETITION MEAN TO YOU? JG: Competition isn't important. It's the fraternity of racers that's important. Here I am, an American, in a French race, in a foreign country, but there are always people I can count on. It's this exotic friendship with people in very different countries-maybe some­ one is a French firefighter or is a window washer who lives in a bus in New Zealand. You hang out with this eclectic group in a hyper-reality. It's almost a crapshoot. I've never gone to win. In Jim Garfield: I met Nelly Fusil-Martin who helped found the Raid with her then-husband Gerard Fusil, when she moved from France to spend her summers in Los Angeles. Southern California is sort of a hotbed of crazy sports, and a bunch of us were really into the idea. A cou­ ple of people at my gym put this team together and I said count me in. In 1992 I was an alternate with the first American team to enter the Raid, held in Oman that year. I ended up not going because the person I would have replaced in the swimming leg learned how to swim. But I got the bug. Then, in 1995, my best friend Bret Kay was murdered in New York. He was an amazing athlete. I decided I wanted to do something in his memory so I did the Eco-Challenge that year. The race was started by Mark Burnett, who had been captain of the American Raid teams in Oman. BLUE: HOW DO YOU TRAIN FOR AN ADVENTURE RACE AND FOR HOW LONG? JG: It depends on what level you want to participate. If you want to be in the top five, you have to have super skill levels in all dis­ ciplines and train as a group. If you make. that type of commitment, you have to train every weekend for eight months to a year. You have to prac- 1 6 • JG: On the face it was different because Gerard had left. He was the figurehead and passion behind it. He also took key peo­ ple with him. All of a sudden the race became more of a corporate event with five figureheads. That changed the flavor and overshadowed everything. All these different people were trying to fill a leadership vac­ uum. Gerard used to pop down in a helicopter in the middle of the race to shepherd the course. That didn't happen this year. Logistically there were huge nightmares-the heli­ copters were grounded because of the extreme altitude (helicopters ,� ��- " ';', . � . '}fI . ' • • .:l the Hi-Tec series of one-day races I go to be super competitive. But in the long races the joy is in thejourne� You have to make the decision whether you go to be the best and fastest. or whether you go for an amazing journey with friends, but it's getting harder to have that kind of experience. Before, if you were a day behind it was OK. Now, unless you're in the top five, the officials can't-or choose to not-support you; the course is closed. Since Gerard left, he has started a three-level race called the Elf (sponsored by the French petroleum giant), which launched in the Philippines in April.

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