Adventure racing

MOAB — Adventure racers proudly tell of feet too blistered for walking, of pushing themselves well beyond exhaustion. And their tales have a common theme: It is so-o-o-o-o-o-o worth it!

Adventure racing, basically translating a triathlon into wilderness and white-water extremes, seems to be inspiring more people than it's scaring away.

"It's getting through something almost nobody else has done and coming out on the other end — limping, mind you, but coming out at the other end," said Jodie Levitt, a 45-year old neurosurgeon attending a weekend certification camp for this summer's Primal Quest.

Primal Quest, or PQ as racers call it, is for the most advanced adventure racers, who need to be certified in skills such as rock climbing and kayaking before venturing out into the woods for hundreds of miles over several days.

But scaled-down adventure races, which give novices a taste of competing for an afternoon instead of more than a week, have been growing in popularity. And weekend clinics are available to people who are interested but not quite sure about the whole thing.

The United States Adventure Racing Association in Austin, Texas, has gone from sanctioning about 30 events six years ago to 350 last year. And many of the races are "sprints" — shorter, tamer versions designed for newbies who know their limits.

"We're seeing a real change," USARA founder Troy Farrar said. "We kind of did our sport backwards. We started out with these multiday monsters."

Adventure racing is a broad classification. Races are usually for teams. The disciplines include biking, hiking and sometimes orienteering, and some sort of water element — usually paddling. Checkpoints can be scattered over a remote area or downtown in a city.

It's like an extreme triathlon for teams of two to five, who compete together rather than in a relay. Events can last 10 days or a few hours, depending on the teams. The most grueling, such as Primal Quest, require competitors to have certification in the different disciplines because there are risks.

Adventure retreats, such as the one Levitt attended recently in Moab, provide racers a chance to practice and be certified during a long weekend.

Workshops and retreats are held throughout the country, as are the races. It doesn't take mountainous wilderness to make an adventure race. The USARA summer schedule has races from Florida to Alaska in all sorts of environments and for a variety of teams.

And for those who really don't want to venture too far outdoors, Houston is hosting an urban race through the city in July.