AUBURN – You’d never know Eric Cobb and Beryl Martin were leaving for an adventure race. The kitchen was tidy, with Cobb warming a burner for spaghetti. The living room also showed no more wear than it would in the middle of the work week.
In the corner, though, tucked next to the couch, was a backpack.
“You should see our basement,” she said. “It’s an absolute mess. It’s in shambles.”
“It’s getting better though,” Cobb quickly added, perhaps trying to salvage some dignity as a housekeeper and husband. “We’re almost all packed up.”
This morning, Cobb and Martin, along with friends Matt Bouchard (from Massachusetts and Sarah Tilton (from New Hampshire) will join 21 other teams at the start of the Appalachian Extreme Adventure Race, a grueling four-day trek through the wilderness. The winner will receive automatic entry into the 2005 Adventure Racing World Championship in New Zealand in November.
Getting hooked
Four years ago, friends in a team called Hometown Heroes (a group of firefighters) asked Cobb and Martin to be part of their support crew. They decided to try it for themselves.
“We saw them do this and it looked like fun,” said Martin. “We said, Hey, we can do that.’ So we started by doing some of the shorter races, the 12- and 24-hour races.”
Adventure racing is relatively new across the United States, but has developed a strong following. When the Eco-Challenge first aired on network television, enthusiasts like Cobb started getting hooked.
“I remember coming home every day and sitting down and watching it,” said Cobb. “It fascinated me.”
Racing Ahead, Inc. runs the Appalachian Extreme Adventure Race each year, and owners Norm Greenberg and Tracyn Thayer have become well-known in adventure racing circles in New England and across the country.
“We’ve known them through racing for four years,” said Cobb. “They run a series with a couple of 12-hour races and a 24-hour race every year, and one of them is always in Maine. The others are in New Hampshire and Vermont.”
The big race
The race begins as a mystery. As each racer assembles with gear (mountain bikes, compasses, food and hydration, paddles) at Sunday River’s Grand Summit Hotel, no one but Thayer and Greenberg know the course. Last year, paddling was the main focus. This year, biking takes center stage. According to Thayer, 49 percent of the course will be on bike, with 32 percent in a canoe and 18 percent on foot. There is also an added feature this year: What Thayer calls a “spectacular rappel.”
“We’d like to think that the course is more challenging because there are many route choices,” said Thayer. “We are not too limited by access, so we can give a couple of points and leave it wide open for the teams to travel there however they see most fit.”
As for training, Cobb and Martin do their fair share. Lengthy bike rides, paddles, fitness work and refreshers on how to navigate are all part of being ready for a long race.
“She decided that we were going to do this race back in November,” said Cobb, pointing across the room to his wife. “And I said, Well, I don’t know, this is a huge undertaking.'”
“I e-mailed Tom, who is Matt’s team partner usually,” said Martin. “and said, We’re interested, are you?’ And he e-mailed us back and said he couldn’t, but that Matt really was. We kind of lost contact for a little while, but when I got back to work after the Christmas break, I had an e-mail from Matt, so I called (Cobb) up and was all excited.”
Cobb may have felt pushed, but as he sat in his living room Thursday, antsy to get back to cooking spaghetti for dinner, excitement boiled in his eyes. Across the room, Martin never stopped smiling, either.
“We have been able to experience a lot of things that we never would have been able to experience,” said Cobb. “Out in the middle of the willie-wacks rappelling off a 400-foot cliff at two in the morning, canoeing down whitewater rapids in an open canoe. Things like that, you wouldn’t otherwise do.”
“It’s all about the physical challenge,” added Martin. “People will ask if it’s fun, and I cannot honestly say that while we are racing I have ever said, Oh, this is so much fun,’ but after you get done, it’s so exciting to look back and say, Wow, we did that, we were up there, and over there.’ That’s the fun part, to look back on it and be able to tell people what you did.”
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