Is there a good place to learn about these? Any one have any experience or recommendations? I’m in the Northeast and have no experience.
There AR school/Camps, but the best way to learn is to try and get on a team with experience guys. There is a yahoo group, NewEnglandAR that has a lot of info! Also look at www.usara.com under events, and I think they list some AR camps.
ARing is mostly about navigation and teamwork.
Navigation is hard to learn on yer own, it really helps to have a teammate w/ experience.
Most important thing is to have like-minded teammates who can all get along and work well together when the sh!t hits the fan, as it inevitably will during any AR event.
Running, biking, and paddling (and ropework sometimes) are just tools to get the job done.
Like with other multisport events, it’s good to start w/ shorter “sprint” events to learn, and then move up from there if you have the interest to do so.
Check out NYARA’s site for some info and links to more info and links.
GenesisAdventures puts on a bunch of AR events in the NE as well.
(along with a kick ass HIM every May)
So your best bet is to group up with like minded people. Find an adventure racing group. They can show you the ropes.
Most races are 2 person or 4 person format without a ropes portion, so just Canoe, Bike, and Trek. The 4 person usually require a coed team.
Once you get a lot of experience, you can do Solo races. RD’s often require a resume before they will let you do Solo. Solo is typcially Kayak, Bike, Trek, and usually a ropes section.
If in a team, most likely you will not have to do the Navigation, but obviously it’s a good thing to know. To get some Navigation experience you can take a class or read up on it and go sign up for some short orienteering races. Orienteering races are typcially short. Usually 2 -6 hours.
The format is pretty simple. They will give you a required equipment list that you must carry with you… They then say “show up at the pre-race meeting at such and such time.” At that point they give you your start time. Could be “now” or could be “tomorrow morning” could be “In 4 hours”. They give you maps, a cluesheet, and a control card. You “grid” your map with a straight edge if not already gridded. Mark the waypoints (checkpoints) listed from the clue sheet that provides the UTM coordinates, and then start plotting your course. They will typcially designate what method of transportation you need to use to get from waypoint to waypoint. You need to be able to read a map. The fastest path is usually not a straigth line. Obstacles like cliffs, dense brush, rivers, etc… put a damper in that theory. Some of the USGS maps are old and are not up to date on trails and lardmarks, so it’s always a good idea to get other sources like Park maps, or trail maps to overlay onto the USGS maps. The waypoints are typcially taken in order. So you start with 1…2…3… and so on. There may also be what’s called a “rogain” section which are a series of waypoints that can be taken out of order to break up groups that are relying on other groups for their navigation. They usually give you an idea of how many miles to prepare for and an estimate on what the top fnishers will complete it in, but typically the races are 4,8,12,16,24,36 hour challenges. There are some really big ones as well which can take up to 5 days.
It’s an absolute blast. I have been doing them during the offseason to keep my base strong. Make sure you get some quality gear and good trail shoes. Being miserable for that many hours is downright awful. As far as bikes go. I prefer my hardtail 29er for Adventure racing over my full suspension since the bike portion are not that technical and you can always choose your route. No cyclocross bikes are allowed and the RD will let you know if it’s ok to use the road or not. Usually it’s not acceptable to use paved roads.
Hope this helps. It take a bit of experience to navigate. pre plotting azimuths is easy. Sticking to them while manuevering through tough terrain is not. Pacing out distance, estimating elevation gain, spotting terrain features and lardmarks for points of reference on the map can be tough especially at night in a thunderstorm 
Have fun with that.
Man that looks like a hoot!
It is a hoot! If anyone wants to check out a few race reports, there is a link below. It is our team blog under construction. There is a race report for Lionheart from June 30th (we came in second; TeamABC). Under archives, May, there is one from Sunflower24. All the way on the bottom left there are team bios.
Tamela
Picture yourself and three associates in a telephone booth for 36 hours straight. Misserable weather usually, tough conditions, blisters, etc. In the end an adventure I would do again and again.
There are a buch of them popping up everywhere. When I got into it all there was was the 36 hour races. A tough way to learn. Now they have as little as 4 hrs. The 8 hour ones seem to be a great break in to the sport. Be prepared for tough times, but to have a blast as well.