This autumn I participated with my partner Trond, at an adventure race: Challenge 40.
The concept is to earn the most points during the 4 hours race, by finding spots marked on the map.
The various spots give different points, and some involve activities like swimming, obstacle race, canoeing, climbing, shooting, orientation, athletics, etc.
Overall, 40 spots are marked on the map, and the team must decide a strategy of which spots to go for. If you spend longer than 4 hours, you lose points you earned...
This was the 4th time I and Trond participated together, and of course, the goal was to improve compared to previous years. We were not in a better shape, but maybe we could learn from previous mistakes:
- Clear communication at the start: one person runs to get the map, while the other one waits (at the agreed place)
- Avoid keeping the life jacket on after completing the canoeing: It gives unnecessary weight and air resistance during biking, and the organizer might be short on life jackets
- If one team member knows where they are and where to go, the other team member does not need to double-check
- Be careful with the orientation, make safe choices
- Do not forget the backpack after completing activities
- Be ahead of the other teams, or choose a slightly different strategy to avoid queue at activity spots.
Without doubt, we had improvement potential, especially during orientation ...
This year, I had the following suggestion to my partner:
"I do the orientation, you perform activities"
It turned out that clear roles of responsibility were crucial when achieving our best result at Challenge 40: 4th place.
I did not believe I would orientate without interference, but Trond has become farsighted during the years. He could not see the map clearly ...
"His farsightedness resulted in good flow throughout the competition"
Trond became a little skeptical as the small path we followed did not end at the road as planned, but at a steep hill filled with stinging nettles.
I insisted that we should crawl through the stinging nettles up to the road, a decision that gave the following bullet point to the improvement list next year:
