Ok, so I just signed up for an Adventure Race (Buff Betty). I was all excited, but then I researched it, and found out that it's all race and no adventure. I excel at adventure and I'm utterly pathetic at race. The paddling part is on a postage stamp of a pond. The mountain biking is on a gravel road for godsakes. And the orienteering is entirely on a trail and you don't have to wander off into the woods at all to find the control points.
I don't mean to disparage the folks. I have at least one hobby/sport that is entirely pointless, yet I do it because it's fun to me and that's good enough. But.....
I got to thinking.... What would be the Buff Barbie race? Lots of adventure, little racing. I figure you'd have to start off at night when it's raining (but not in the cold---I don't do cold). You'd have to cross a mountain, but there wouldn't be control points. Just a start and end. How you got from here to there would be entirely up to you. Then you'd wrestle an alligator or something. Then you'd bake a pie.
I don't know. But just for fun, I thought I'd throw it out to you guys to see what you would do to come up with as a *real* adventure race. What would test folks' sense of adventure without risking killing them? Not so tough that like no one would enter. Not so hokey it would make a bad TV reality show. Something fun for real outdoorsy folks. You know, like us. But not necessarily tied to any particular sport.
I posted this just now to the Cave Divers Forum. Now I'm throwing it out to you guys, too. I think it would be fun to see what we would come up with.