Shenandoah Tough
Expedition Adventure Racers Set to Tackle Shenandoah Tough
Press Release / 12.09.2018
The Shenandoah Tough Expedition Adventure Race begins September 13, with twenty-one teams of one to four participants covering about 250 miles in 3.5 days, navigating their way across Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley via foot, mountain bike, and boat. The winning team earns free entry to the Adventure Racing World Championship, and all finishers earn the title of being “Shenandoah Tough.”
“The course has been designed for the racers to explore Virginia’s rugged Shenandoah Valley, to discover its challenging terrain and varied history,” says race director Mark Harris. “We see it as a self-guided, hands-on, behind-the-scenes tour of our home state.”
For the past 8 years Adventure Enablers, a race production company out of Front Royal, has been producing their flagship 24-hour adventure race--the Shenandoah Epic--in the Shenandoah Valley. According to race director and Adventure Enablers’s owner Harris, “Our dream has always been to expand the Epic to a multi-day expedition race to take advantage of all the terrain and outdoor amazingness this region offers.” So was born the Shenandoah Tough.
The exact course remains secret until the race starts. When they register, racers only know that they will be racing in the Shenandoah Valley and that the start and finish line are at Shrine Mont in Orkney Springs, near Bryce Resort. At 6 am on September 13, the full course with maps and rules of travel will be handed out to racers, giving teams 2 hours to plan their route before the start horn blows at 8 am and they head off on their 3-day adventure.
Each team must carry an assigned GPS tracker, allowing friends, family, and anyone else interested to “follow their dot” as each team makes their around their course. You can follow the race at http://live.arworldseries.com/tough18/.
The Shenandoah Tough is a qualifier for the Adventure Racing World Series (ARWS) before the 2018 Adventure Racing World Championship. The ARWS unites in competition the world’s best endurance athletes at premiere qualifier events around the globe. The top two teams at each of these races gain a coveted position on the start line of the annual pinnacle of the sport, the AR World Championship. The 2018 Adventure Racing World Championship will be held in Reunion Island, France, on November 5-16.
This year marks the first year for the Shenandoah Tough, but Adventure Enablers is not new to hosting endurance events, including adventure races, to mountain bike races, to trail and road runs. The company has hosted the Cowboy Tough in Wyoming for the previous 5 years, culminating last year as the Adventure Racing World Championship, the ARWC’s first time ever being hosted in the United States.
Adventure Enablers also hosts local races, including the Helltown Half, Shenandoah Leaf Peeper 10K and Festival of Leaves 5K, held on October 14 over the Festival of Leaves weekend in Front Royal, and offers timing and tracking services. For more information, visit www.adventureenablers.com and www.arworldseries.com. Photos and videos are available upon request.
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