BLOOD SWEAT TEARS; ... AND THEN IT GETS REALLY BAD.Byline: Heesun Wee Daily News Staff Writer The second-graders fidgeted in their small chairs and whispered to one another. Many, unsure, glanced down at their opened science texts and notebooks. Their teacher, Louise Cooper-Lovelace, asked the question again: A fin moves in the ocean. Does it belong to a whale or shark? One youngster answers correctly. A whale's fin bobs up and down, Cooper-Lovelace repeats. A shark's fin rocks eerily from side to side. ``Then you swim like a crazy person,'' she adds, rotating her tanned arms through the air in front of her. Her young audience giggles. Cooper-Lovelace's students at Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth have come to expect survival tips tucked inside science lessons. That's because their teacher knows first-hand about enduring and outwitting Mother Nature. She has faced wilderness's wrath and won, repeatedly. When Cooper-Lovelace isn't teaching, calling her students ``sweetie'' and pecking their heads with kisses, she trains and competes in one of the fastest-growing and arguably most grueling sports in the world - outdoor adventure racing. Competitors prepare year-round for the days-long, multisport mul·ti·sport also mul·ti·sports adj. 1. Composed of, involving, or accommodating several sports: a multisport competition; a multisport stadium. 2. contest in the outdoors. Four- to five-person teams hike, bike, climb, rappel, swim, kayak, whitewater raft, and ride horses and sometimes camels, through the world's most awesome and treacherous environments. And because it's a race, competitors move on little sleep, often only a few hours a night. Fatigue is their constant nemesis. Roughly half of a race's estimated 50 to 60 teams do not cross the finish line. Since she began competing four years ago, Cooper-Lovelace has traversed the outback and crocodile-infested waters in Queensland, Australia. She has trekked through Patagonia in South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. and Lesotho in South Africa South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. . She planned to compete in the Raid Gauloises (pronounced gal-WAHZ) in Ecuador in September. But she recently was diagnosed with breast cancer and will return to racing next year. Racers who invest hundreds of hours - and dollars - practicing and traveling to far-flung race locales insist they're sane. ``But I'm sure there are some people who think I'm crazy "I'm Crazy" is a short story written by J. D. Salinger in 1945 for Collier's magazine. From all his short stories involving Holden Caulfield, this one is most similar to Catcher In The Rye, as it simply recounts well-known scenes with Mr. ,'' Cooper-Lovelace said. Beyond marathons and triathlons Cooper-Lovelace, 44, of West Hills pushed her body through 56 marathons and seven Hawaii Ironman Triathlons before growing bored. That's when she spotted adventure racing on television, turned to friends and declared, ``This is for me.'' But she and other uber athletes genuinely grew weary of marathons and triathlons during the 1980s and 1990s. Restless and lonely from years of solo endeavors, they eyed the sports terrain for a new contest that promised challenges and camaraderie. The stage was set for the first adventure race in New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. in 1989 that launched a new gauntlet for athletes like Cooper-Lovelace. Racers say it's the teammates that makes finishing such races possible. ``I thought they would be focused on themselves. Be like, `Hey, look at me. I'm so cool.' Instead, there's this sense that we're all in this together We're All In This Together can refer to:
Martin Robert Dugard (born May 18 1969 in Worthing,[1] West Sussex) is a former international motorcycle speedway rider who spent his career with the Eastbourne Eagles. of Orange County, who has completed several races and wrote about it in ``Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth'' (Ragged Mountain Ragged Mountain may refer to any of 24 mountains in the United States, including:
Beyond the physical and mental hurdles, adventure racing offers seemingly mild-mannered suburban moms, dads and professionals the closest approximation to that elusive yet undeniable experience - outdoor adventure. The sport is about emulating Lewis and Clark, but on a clock. Racers with enough disposable income disposable income Portion of an individual's income over which the recipient has complete discretion. To assess disposable income, it is necessary to determine total income, including not only wages and salaries, interest and dividend payments, and business profits, but also and time, compete for the same reason Americans spent $190 million last year on exotic vacations, estimates Mike Epstein ``They are not doing it as much to win as to be Indiana Jones,'' said Mark Burnett Mark Burnett (born 17 July, 1960) is a British-American television producer. He is known for introducing reality television as a genre to the USA. He produced the USA version of the series Survivor and the Eco-Challenge. , founder of the Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge. It's easy to dismiss adventure racing as another ``extreme sport.'' But adventure racing isn't about quick adrenaline rushes, nor does it imitate established endurance events. An adventure race's pace and pivotal orienteering orienteering Cross-country footrace in which each participant uses a map and compass to navigate between checkpoints along an unfamiliar course. Introduced in Sweden in 1918, it later spread throughout Europe. World championships have been held since 1966. skills make it unique. ``You couldn't go at an Ironman pace for nine days,'' said Kirk Boylston, 40, of Calabasas. Trust him. He knows. One of Cooper-Lovelace's former teammates, Boylston also competed in marathons and triathlons before embarking on adventure racing four years ago. Even climbing Mount McKinley in Alaska in 1994 left the regional manager of a sports apparel company, Gramicci in Oxnard, unsatisfied. Although Boylston had honed the various sports required in adventure racing, he had to learn to sleep, pack and eat just enough. This quest to move efficiently has prompted racers to hack off toothbrush handles. Others carry and use one toothbrush for an entire team. Adventure racing also demands dexterity in orienteering or navigation, one of Boylston's strengths. He can study a sparse topographical map See under Cadastral. - Topographical surveying. See under Surveying. See also: Topographic , look up and locate similar-looking terrain. He's vital to a team because a wrong move means lost time and energy. It's this crucial marriage of mind and muscle that explains why somewhat scrawny-looking racers have passed up beefy beefy, beefyness 1. in dog conformation, used to describe overdevelopment of musculature in the hindquarters. 2. in cattle, used to designate the desirable physical conformation of a beef animal, but an undesirable character in dairy cattle. Navy SEALs. If any racers expertly balance braun and brains, it's the New Zealanders This is a list of well-known people associated with New Zealand. Art A
``The Americans carry a fridge on their backs,'' said Nelly Fusil-Martin, co-founder of the Raid Gauloises. Gerard Fusil fu·sil n. A light flintlock musket. [French, steel in a flintlock, firearm, from Old French fuisil, steel for a tinderbox, from Vulgar Latin - a French radio journalist and sportsman, and Fusil-Martin's former husband - conceived adventure racing a decade ago. The Fusils eventually found a race sponsor, the French cigarette maker Gauloises. The thick-accented Fusil-Martin spends her mornings organizing races with colleagues in Paris via three telephone lines and a fax machine inside her Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. home-office. Although she never has competed in a race, nor does she plan to, Fusil-Martin fashioned many concepts that make a race covering 300 to 400 miles possible. Teams carry small booklets that must be stamped at checkpoints to verify completion and prevent shortcuts See Win Shortcuts. . Racers must provide certification of their sports abilities to help weed out unqualified competitors and potentially disastrous results. So far, no deaths have been reported. Equal-opportunity sport Because of its demanding nature, adventure racing attracts seasoned talent, with most racers in their 30s and 40s. It's also an equal-opportunity sport. Rules mandate co-ed teams. Boylston, for example, will race with three women in the Eco-Challenge in Morocco in October, but the usual group combination includes three or four men and one woman. Male racers still dominate the sport. And women like Cooper-Lovelace are scarce. Men often court her, hoping she'll join their all-male clubs. At the moment, the sport's growth lies in shorter, modified adventure races. Epstein and Dugard want to make a modified version of the seven- to 10-day race an Olympic sport. In whatever form, Dugard said, adventure racing has a future because expedition remains timeless. Dugard first tasted the exhausting expedition in 1993 when he covered the Raid in Madagascar as a journalist. He watched as French athletes, seeking a reprieve from racing, lit up cigarettes and sipped red wine. The vast wilderness spread out before them as they enjoyed their treats. ``Man, you're living life,'' Dugard thought to himself. ``I wanted to be a part of that.'' ON YOUR MARK ... Whether you're looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a hint of adventure racing or aspire to aspire to verb aim for, desire, pursue, hope for, long for, crave, seek out, wish for, dream about, yearn for, hunger for, hanker after, be eager for, set your heart on, set your sights on, be ambitious for compete in a weeklong contest, check out theAdventure Racing Association: 12 Hubbard Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02140. No telephone number. Visit its Web site at www.adventureracing.org. The group keeps a comprehensive list of adventure races worldwide. CAPTION(S): 6 Photos, Box Photo: (1--Cover--Color) PUSHING THE LIMIT Forget triathlons. Adventure racers chart their own course (2--Color) Outdoor adventure races Louise Cooper-Lovelace and Kirk Boylston train for one of the most grueling sports in the world. Tina Gerson/Daily News (3--6--Color) The two most prominent adventure racing competitions are the U.S.-sponsored Eco Challenge and the French-sponsored Raid Gauloises. Teams compete for days in sports that include white-water rafting, hiking, mountain climbing and horseback riding. Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel Photo courtesy of Raid Gauloises Box: ON YOUR MARK ... (See Text) |
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