Calendar of international AR events

Over the years I've dabbled with calendars of international adventure races for myself, especially during the years when I was doing race reporting for SleepMonsters and Checkpointzero. Then, yesterday, an AR friend emails to ask about a race in China. I only know of one long one but couldn't find a thing on the web. So I turn to Clive Saffrey's comprehensive calendar of events (he emails it our every quarter or so - ultras, marathons, etc) and there's nothing there either.

Then I start playing. First, I deleted all non-AR events from Clive's calendar - also deleting short AR events - everything two days or less. Not much point travelling overseas for a one day race with a team, gear, bike boxes... I've only selected races that are long enough to be worth travelling to.

Then I cruise to Geoff Hunt's AR World Series website and start adding to Clive's list. Then I trawl my memory and the internet. Et voila! A really interesting spreadsheet results. OK, so it's 1am - off to bed.

I figure that this is great content for www.ar.co.za... and it has been on my mind for years... I know of a number of local racers who would love to go abroad to race but don't know what is on offer, how pricey are entry fees...

Next morning, first on my list is creating the International Event calendar on www.ar.co.za. I populated the content one-by-one, going to each of the event websites to find the really important information - country, date, disciplines, duration/distance, entry fees, supported or unsupported, staged or non-stop... and there we have it -  a super quick-look at what is available this year.

OK, so it took friggin' hours, but it is done - and not a day too soon! I'm back to work in the morning. It's setting up this kind of stuff that is the real pain. It gets easier (and faster) from here. And, my friend over at The Adventure Blog, Kraig, has spread the word so you can expect to see this calendar rocking with great content that is relevant and informative to those who like a dash of 'exotic location' with our racing.

When you have a mo, check out the calendar and let me know (comment below) which races tickle your fancy. I'm a sucker for South and Central America so Costa Rica AR (goes through Panama and Nicaragua too!) looks attractive, as well as Huairasinchi in Ecuador (and it you win you get 4 nights on the Galapagos Islands!). As for Raid Centrale Paris , which takes place in Corsica... my friend went trekking there and her photos of this island are magnificent. Terrex Coast to Coast in England (across England, East to West) is very accessible - direct flight to London. Nice, nice, nice.