Discussion: Introduced some newbies to AR

My regular teammates and I decided to split up and captain three separate teams of newbies through the Castlewood 8hr race. It could have gone so wrong, but turned out to be a great time. If you would like to see our race report (lots of pictures) it is at:
http://rock-racing.blogspot.com/2011/12/castlewood...

What a great idea! It's good for all of us if the sport grows.

Love your Attackpoint name!

Excellent!

I'm excited - a new race in my area (Michigan) requires at least one team member be an AR first timer.

http://www.infiterrasports.com/events/2012/get-bea...

It may not bring as much danger as did yours, since it's only four hours and in our beginner friendliest park.

I now have to work on converting some of the "sounds cool" to "sign me ups!".

We are trying hard to grow our numbers so Race the Phantom 2012 will feature a *cash reward* to anyone brining a team of newbies....details will be posted on our site before too long.

This is a very cool movement. I know in Ontario there were a few similar cases (contests paired up folks who had never raced with a veteran racers/teams).

I think it would be very cool for for more RDs to do similar things, especially for races that are considered entry level. I am sure they would always be able to find veteran racers who would be willing to participate. And I doubt there would ever be a shortage of people wanting to try AR who would do so if they had a helping hand.

I believe one of my friends took a couple of newbies for an 8 hour race (Bark Lake) and ended up marrying one of them... just a word of caution :-)

.. if memory serves it was the same race that one of the more 'experienced' racers stepped in a bear trap (sorry, had to throw that in, in case she reads this)

If you're talking about DZ, he met his wife-to-be at a race in Bon Echo. The bear trap incident did indeed occur near Bark Lake.

I didn't realize he knew her before that Bark Lake race where he was the 'celebrity' racer that two lucky gals got to race with :-)

hmmn, maybe that 'lottery' was run by OLG.. or DZ&G

People would likely be willing to take the risks associated with adventure racing. It may be too much of a stretch to ask them to take the risk of matrimony.

No, you are right. He was also a celebrity racer at Bon Echo in May 2005 and I had thought that he met her there. But it was at Bark Lake in Sept 2006.

Anyway... racing with newbies is a great way to meet new people. :)

bugsinteeth, We have done something similar at the Raid the Hammer before and will bring this back in 2012... "Pimp my Raid". race or train with a top Raid runner. This will be part of something new called "Road2Raid" as we try to get more people off the roads and into a half raid this spring and autumn. We would love to have more experienced adventure racers and orienteers do something similar at our March Hard Rock and October Peak2Peak training events.

Pimp My Raid...I love it. Hehe. Very cool to see!