Outdoor Adventure Lifestyle Podcast

Adventure Racing: Where Physical Puzzles and Outdoor Thrills Collide [EP 402]

Broadcast on:: 19 Sep 2023

Welcome to episode 402 of The Outdoor Biz Podcast, brought to you this week by Lowa. This week Lowa Ambassador Max Seigal and his race partner Russell Henry share their 1st Adventure Race experience with us as they took 1st place in the recent Expedition Colorado Race put on by Warrior Adventure Racing. The race involved kayaking, mountain biking and running at elevations between 13,000 and 10,000 feet . . . Max and Russell were wearing Lowa’s recently released Trail Running models from their All Terrain Running Collection. The ATR collection represents another milestone in Lowa’s nearly 100 years of product development. Now . . . it’s time to run.

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00:02:2000:02:27 The Wandering Biologist: "So after college, I actually sorted all the jobs that I was looking for based on location first..."— Max Seigal

00:03:1000:03:14 Outdoor Adventures: "I grew up on the West Coast of British Columbia with Aaron...and my dad owned an outdoor store, Ocean River Sports and started a Kayak company, "— Russell Henry

00:05:2600:05:35 The Power of Nature: "Once you put me in the mountains or and these really beautiful and remote places. It's you just you can't describe that feeling you get. It's amazing."— Max Seigal

00:06:4500:07:07 The Thrill of Paddling White Water: "I find spending time on rivers and paddling white water to be such a full-bodied experience. It's just with, like, you're fully immersed in it... It's the contrast of the whole thing of getting ready for the river beforehand, then you do the crazy thing and you're in there and you're scared and it's thundering, and it's like wet and cooled. And then afterwards, you get off the river, and now it's baking hot, and you take your dry suit off and your love and life, and you're there with your best friends."— Russell Henry

00:08:3300:08:47 The Love for Individual Sports: "Once you're done with your high school sports days, it's like you gotta figure something else out and that's when I really started falling in love with just getting out and, you know, running and hiking and camping and mountain all these sort of individual sports that I still really love."— Max Seigal

00:09:2300:09:41 Trail Running Shoes: "And this new lineup of, their ATRs is is just released this year. It's kind of their more trail running approach. And I've been really excited for this for a long time because, you know, you can only do so much in a hiking shoe of running shoes. Now you're like, you get the trifecta. You can get out and do it all."— Max Seigal

00:11:2600:11:40 Adventure Racing: "Adventure racing, it's kind of, funny sport in that You're basically out in the woods for set amount of time on a really big scavenger hunt."— Russell Henry

00:12:48:04 The Power of Pushing Limits: "Just keep going. Like, I think people think it's amazing that we can do this kind of race or that adventure racers do this stuff. But really, if you're an enough person outdoorsy, just like you'll you can just As long as you don't sit down too often, you just your body will keep going if you keep feeling it and and you can do some amazing things."— Russell Henry

00:18:0100:18:11 Foot Care Regime for Races: "They sand all the calluses off their feet, basically leading up to the race, and then they're moisturizing and moisturizing with salt through the night. basically trying to make their feet as soft as they can."— Russell Henry

00:27:0600:27:12 Struggling with Overeating during a Race: "I think I ate too much food. I'm like, so tired. My stomach hurts."— Max Seigal

00:28:5600:29:03 Altitude Troubles: I just, like, started feeling the altitude so heavily and was not in a good place."— Russell Henry

00:29:4900:29:53 Sleep Deprivation and Altitude Sickness: 'I was a total wreck and then eventually got back on my bike'"— Russell Henry

00:32:1100:32:12 The Challenges of Sleep Deprivation in Endurance Races: "I did not sleep at all."— Max Seigal

00:32:3700:33:01 Sleeping through the pain: "I guess this is over. And we're kinda done. But, Russ, I think if I can sit up and sleep, like, maybe I can get an hour of sleep sitting up and Let's see if that works. So we set our alarms for, like, another hour and a half, and he sat up and somehow he, like, slept for an hour. And woke up, and he's like, alright. I guess we're gonna keep going. And so -- Wow."— Max Seigal

00:37:0000:37:24 Adventuring with Friends: "We just wanted to do something together. We wanted to meet up and go on an adventure. And my new Max was a crusher in the mountains, so I think if I can't remember me or him found the race, but then we just said this is perfect. Let's like because also when we were working together on the ship, week on this polar tourism ship together. Last thing, Max was helping me train for an adventure race that I did in May. So I was running in the gym with him, and he we were doing things together. So it was kinda cool to then get to do one with him."— Russell Henry

00:37:3500:37:42 Scheduling: "The issue is we both live very busy and kind of, opposite lives right now in terms of scheduling."— Max Seigal

00:38:3000:39:15 Top Adventure Racing Events to Aim For: I think having [Expedition Oregon] as a goal to try to do well in would be really cool."— Russell Henry

00:39:4900:40:02 Adventure Racing: "There's so many little adventure racing intricacies of, like, things we've talked about, like, foot care and how do you hydrate and how often do you sleep and how do you sleep and all these little things that you learn."— Russell Henry

00:44:4800:44:59 The Power of Teammate Bonding: "Honestly, to me, the most important thing is having that teammate or your teammates that kind of inspire you, but also that you just have great banter with and kind of love to hang out with...I was just like, what's with my buddy? I was like, here we are. Just chit chatting and walking and biking and having a good time. And, like, that to me made it just so much more fun..."— Max Seigal

00:47:2100:47:34 Adventure Race: "Honestly, it was like, one of the best weeks of my life, you know, just you're discovering things about yourself. You're discovering, like, how hard you can push yourself? How hard you can go without sleep? how long you can bike and run in the mountains. And, you know, chemistry with a person, like, for that much time, it's just so much discovery, and it's a really good feeling to finish up and be like, wow. I just learned a lot about myself."— Max Seigal

Suggestions or advice for someone wanting to do their first adventure race or get into adventure racing

Max: I'd say go for it. Adventure race. This was my first one. Russell had done a couple and he's like, dude, let's try this. I had no idea what to expect, but honestly, it was like one of the best weeks of my life.

Russell: Just look it up. And I think once you look it up, you see that there's actually lots of races around. You can sign up for something small to start. You can do something small to see if you like it.

Favorite piece of Outdoor Gear under $100

Max- the most important things I think are like a good pair of shoes that you can run a lot of miles in and then not get blisters that fit your feet.

Russell- outdoor research sun shirt men's, women's

Follow up:

with Max: www.maxwilderness.com

with Russell: instagram.com/russellfrederickhenry/

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