Adventure racing is a sport in which teams of women and men attempt to forge through courses, performing hairy adventures such as kayaking down vicious rapids, trekking up monstrous mountains, scaling rock walls and sometimes even straddling camels through the desert in a grueling effort to be the first to cross the finish line. The race lasts for a matter of days, for those who are rugged enough to finish, and competitors often get little to no sleep in between sunset and sunrise. To even attempt this race, you must possess a unique toughness of mind, body and spirit. Rebecca Rusch does.
By Sarah Murray
She was the captain of the 1999 Atlas Snowshoes/Rubicon Eco Challenge team which took fourth place in Patagonia, Argentina. Her team, which was the only team to have three women and one man and in the end, proved that whatever anatomy is under your nappy polypropylene is no matter at all. We caught up with Rebecca Rusch after her most recent challenge in Borneo for a little chitty chat.
How did you feel about both your performance and your team's performance in Borneo?Really good, actually. We signed up at the last minute because we had intended on doing another race in the snow. I had a little problem getting motivated and changing gears and getting ready for the jungle, but when the gun went off it all changed.
How much sleep did you all get during the whole race? How do you train your body to function on so little sleep? Nine hours in seven days. You can't really train for sleep deprivation, it's just not healthy. The only training is experience with other races and knowing how to respond to it. You're going to have hallucinations, your body is going to react in strange ways. You need to know how to react to it when it happens and know at what point you need to stop and take a power nap. My best training is to get good sleep beforehand.
How did the gender breakdown of two women and two men work for your Borneo team as compared to last year in Patagonia when you had more females than males or other teams you've been a part of where you're the sole female?What I learned last year was that it doesn't matter. Someone can be a good teammate regardless of gender. Obviously we're different. Neither is better or worse, you need both. I'd race with whomever, as long as they're a good teammate. What was really encouraging this year was the fact that there were several teams with two women and two men.
Did you appreciate the fact that so much attention last year was focused on the fact that your team was made up of three females and one male, or did that get irritating?I appreciated it for several reasons. Definitely, it was nice to be able to give that exposure to our sponsors. But more importantly, I did that to prove a point. If we hadn't gotten any coverage, we wouldn't have made the same impact. It's just like the women's soccer team. They've been great for years, but didn't get attention until recently. Last year they got major press and have been able to affect change. If we had had a bad race and gotten lots of press, it would suck. But that wasn't the case. If it encouraged women to get into non-traditional male-dominated sports, it's worth it. And I loved to beat a bunch of guys and to prove to them that it doesn't matter. And I loved to say that same thing to myself, because your own doubts exist when you're competing against six-foot-tall dudes who are amazing bikers and hikers.
What did you personally bring to this team - mentally, physically and emotionally?I'm pretty motivated and competitive and played a leadership role in that sense. Also, I love to paddle, and this particular race was 60 percent paddling, which was really fun. I guess I'm patient and have a good attitude too. But, I don't know, you have to ask my teammates!
Do you get scared when you're out there. Do you have a scariest memory of training or competing?Yeah, I get scared when I'm out there, when I'm whitewater swimming. There are definitely risks, if you're not right online you can drown on a strainer of trees. The most scared I've been in a race was the first Eco Challenges I ever did. One of my teammates got really sick. In the course of an hour he had no balance, couldn't see straight, his eyes were totally dialated. Listening to him talk about not seeing his family ever again, that was scary.
What do you talk about while you're racing with the same three people for days straight? Do you have deep talks? Everything. Sometimes there are long periods of silence, when you're in your own head. This race, I thought a lot about my dad. He was in the Vietnam War and never came home from it. The landscape in Borneo is very similar to that in Vietnam. When I was trudging through the jungle, I would think about him being shot at. How hard it was to just be in that environment and then to be getting shot at. We talk about everyone's life. One guy had just gotten divorced, so we spent lots of time discussing that. We sing songs and talk about stupid stuff, too. And of course, we talk about race stuff and navigation. It's amazing, you truly experience every part of your life in a race like this, from the silliest things to the most profound.
How much of adventure racing is competition against other people, how much of it is competition against the elements and how much competition with yourself and your limits?That depends on experience. It's changed for me. Now it's more racing and competing against other teams. In the beginning, you just want to finish the race or have the experience. The ultimate goal is always finishing as a team and finishing as friends.
I read in some interview, that you're favorite quote was "pain is weakness leaving the body." At what point during your athletic career, have you felt the most weakness leaving your body?The Tibet race that I got back from in May was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. We started at 14,000 feet. Two of us got bronchitis at that race. We didn't just have to deal with the altitude, we had to deal with such a limited lung capacity. We didn't know what it was at the time. It was so scary, the first time I've ever wanted to quit a race. The medics thought we had pulmonary anemia, which is an altitude condition where your lungs fill with blood. They were trying to pull us from the course. Eventually, they let us go on. At one point, we were at 17,000 feet, guys were literally towing me as I hacked and coughed. I thought I was having a heart attack. We were moving so slowly. I was in a total spaced out zone, just trying so hard to move forward. We ended up finishing seventh, the highest-placed American team. I learned an incredible amount about limits. You can go a lot further than you think you can. I felt myself becoming stronger and stronger when I was at the brink of my physical and mental limits.
If you could give advice to a bright-eyed little mountain girl, whose goal was to compete in the Eco Challenge one day, what would it be?Anyone can do it, if you have the right frame of mind. Adventure racing is way more mental than physical. You cover such a large amount of distance. Either you have the right mind frame or not. It doesn't matter if you've ever done a marathon, or whatever. I think women are well suited for it.
Last year, some of my friends and I were watching the Eco Challenge on the Discovery Channel. We had a real in depth conversation speculating about what inspires a person to put their mind, body and soul through such an experience. Why do you compete in adventure racing? What is your source of motivation?Sometimes I don't even know why I do it. I guess because it's such a powerful experience. It's the only thing I've done that pushes me so far. Like anything you work hard for, once you attain it, it's so satisfying. You feel so good about yourself. You feel so strong. It makes you feel invincible. Also, relationships with your teammates are so intense. You need them to survive. In Tibet, Patrick pulled me, literally towed my weight behind him. You feel such intense love for someone who is so there for you. Someone said to me recently, that the whole world has already been mapped and discovered. Adventure racers have the same mindset as early explorers, but they can't find new territory in terms of land. So we're exploring inside ourselves. We're exploring the limits of the human body and mind. I really like to think of it in that way. Every race holds a new lesson for me, new territory to explore. It never gets old, and it's never the same.
I can only imagine that adventure racing regularly tosses you into intensely powerful situations -- where you're putting so much on the line and exerting so much of yourself - in the most powerful places in the world -- having to relate to people during times when you're stripped down of all pretenses. Does this dull everyday life for you at all? How does it change your perspective on how you live or how you digest what's around you?Yeah, it does dull everyday life -- in a good way though. It makes me not stress about the little stuff. My credit card company called and reminded me I hadn't made a payment in forever. In the past, I would have probably been freaking out about that stuff. But I'm not. It's not important. Those experiences dull the tension of being in traffic and that little annoying stuff. I do wonder if I'll always need these super intense experiences to feel happy. If it's been too long, I need it. I crave it. I made a pact with myself to do something major on every birthday, so at the very least, I'll remind myself once a year to remind myself of who I am. I still enjoy an hour-long bike ride in the hills like normal people, I just need more if it.
I was surprised to read that Mark Burnett conceptualized both the Eco Challenge and the hit television show "Survivor." Have you ever watched that show? What do you think about it? It's kinda cool. It's more interesting than watching Brady Bunch reruns. Well, that's not fair, cause I actually like the Brady Bunch reruns. But you know what I mean. Hopefully people realize it's totally sensationalized. It's not at all real. Sometimes I think, that when they air Eco Challenge, we are the worst paid actors on television. Producers make it appear how they want it to appear. They make a story out of Eco Challenge in the same way that they make a story out of "Survivor." Mark has a great marketing concept. People are getting into having real experience on television. What bums me out is how much money the people on "Survivor" made. Even the guy that got voted off first made huge bucks. I'm on the wrong show. We do the real thing and hardly make enough money to support ourselves.
What do you think about the American obsession with the notion of "extreme" these days?I do think Americans have an obsession with extreme. I think it has something to do with the fact that there is no where left to explore. Marathons are commonplace now, the Ironman is no big deal. People are pushing further and further. Everyone is trying to figure out how can they can be the first to do something. They're looking for a way to push themselves and don't know how. Everyone wants to find spirituality -- find what's important in life. That's where all the extreme stuff comes from. People are bored standing on the treadmill, and I don't blame them. But they're doing it for the wrong reasons. My most hard-core friends don't even call themselves extreme. It's the ones that aren't at all extreme that have to try to identify with that word and that idea. If you're secure, you don't have to play it up. If you're not, then you get wrapped up in that identification. You must know this, the real deal doesn't need to say anything.
What do you do when you're not outside tackling the mountains and rivers and jungles?I work on my truck. I have a 1974 Bronco. I do e-mails. Try to get sponsorship deals. I drink coffee. Visit friends. After a race, I lay around for a couple of weeks to recover emotionally. I go see people I've blown off all year long while training. Like this Christmas, I'm going to Detroit to visit my family. I do normal stuff.
Thanks for taking time to talk to us about your experiences, Rebecca. We'll be sure to keep an eye out for you when the Borneo Eco Challenge is televised on the Discovery Channel later this year. Best of luck. Keep it real.