Andrew Schrauben

It's a great time to be a fan of endurance sports! Right now two sports - adventure racing and road cycling - are putting on their biggest events of the year. The best adventure racers in the world are just finishing up their premier event, the Primal Quest, hosted in Utah this year. As the Primal Quest comes to a close, cycling's signature Tour de France race is kicking off in Europe. Both events take several days to complete, which may be too slow for TV but it's a great type of race to follow during the day via the internet - day after day of wondering what it would be like to undertake such an endeavor.

The Tour de France (TdF) is a stage race, which means competitors race a given segment of the course each day and they add up the total time required to complete each leg. The TdF covers over 2,200 miles during the course of 23 days (including two rest days of no racing) winding through the mountains, farm fields, and towns of France and Germany. While I'm not an avid road cyclist, I find the strategy and tension to be captivating. It's a lot like watching soccer or NASCAR - extended periods of little obvious action during which teams are intensely trying to set themselves up to capitalize on a sudden opportunity.

Much more exciting and even inspiring to me is the Primal Quest (PQ), which is a continuous expedition - the race never stops. When to sleep, and how much sleep to get, is a key strategic factor in every team's success (or lack thereof). It is this event that has left me more amazed and in awe than any other sporting event. The PQ covers 500 miles comprising varied disciplines such as trekking, kayaking, mountain biking, and mountain climbing. The winning team finished in just over six days, and the slowest teams will take up to ten days.

While strategy plays a huge role in the TdF, the strategic planning of the PQ is many times greater in scope. Not only are the racers pushing themselves physically, but also cognitively as they battle fatigue, dehydration, malnourishment, overheating, and sleep deprivation without a chance to recover until they finish. It gives new meaning to the word "perseverance", or even "survival". If it wasn't enough to be physically exhausted and mentally burned out, racers have to remain emotionally upbeat and continue to work well together.

What really intrigues me about expedition-length races (covering several days) is the amount of personal drive and will power required just to finish the event. You and your team of four, on your own in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, hoping that you planned and trained appropriately for the weather, the terrain, and your mental state. Someday I would LOVE to compete in PQ or a similar expedition; in fact there's a great one here in Michigan put on by Infiterra Sports.

I'm probably not prepared yet to complete an expedition race, but how do I know for sure? A few of my training buddies have completed the Michigan Coast to Coast so I know it's well within my realm of possibility. But what more am I capable of? In 9th grade I loved running but didn't join the cross country team because I didn't think I could run three miles; I'd never run farther than one at the time. Then as a high school senior I did finally join cross country and even though I went on training runs up to ten miles long, I felt that a marathon was well beyond my abilities. During college I marvelled at the Eco Challenge races but felt that I could never do it. Even when my neighbor during my last year of college was recruited by an Eco Challenge team, it never occurred to me that such a challenge was within my grasp.

After college I stopped running for about five years, but resumed running a couple years ago. Last year I ran my first marathon and finished my first adventure race (an 8-hour sprint). I used to think three miles was impossible for me, and then I thought a marathon was impossible. Those were enough to make me wonder, just how much is possible? This fall I plan to complete a 50 mile trail run... holy cow, can I really run 50 miles? There's only one way to find out! Following the PQ and TdF will help to inspire my desire to ENDURE, to PERSEVERE, and FINISH an event that at one point in my life I used to consider impossible for myself. Whether or not I finish it's going to be painful, but worth the effort - at least I'll know just how far I can go.