Expedition Africa Adventure Race Begins Monday!

On Monday, Expedition Africa – a 500 km (310 mile) long adventure race – will get underway in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa. The race will pit coed teams of four against one another in a non-stop, multi-sport AR event that is expected to take a minimum of three days to complete. As usual, the athletes will need to run, mountain bike, paddle and navigate their way through some remote and beautiful locations on their way to the finish line. The race is scheduled to run through May 12.

Fans of adventure racing will be able to follow the event live on the official website once the race commences on Monday. The race organizers will also be posting regular updates to their Facebook page as well. But if you want to read the best coverage available, it is likely to be found on the adventure racing site AR.co.za. The site belongs to my friend Lisa de Speville, who has a long track record of covering expedition length races. She'll be on site in the Drakensbergs next week to cover the race and will post reports to her webpage regularly. Lisa's race reports are always thorough, interesting and insightful, and as a fan of the sport, I'm already looking forward to what she has to say.

For those of you who are new to adventure racing or to Expedition Africa, Lisa has set up a page to describe the basics of the event which you can read here. She has also compiled a list of good online resources for keeping current with what is happening while the race is underway, which you'll find here.

Expedition Africa also happens to be part of the Adventure Racing World Series, which means that the 31 teams competing there will be looking to earn a qualifying spot at the AR World Championships to be held in Costa Rica later this year. It is the only adventure race held on the African continent to hold that distinction.

Good luck to all of the racers. Have fun and watch out for the sleep monsters!