Beyond Adventure Sports

About Beyond

When you see Eco-Challenge athletes on television, it always seems so dramatic. Their faces are usually sneered with determination and grit, trying to fight through some unimaginable pain. Their feet are shown as blistered and bloody, and yet they push on. You can't help but to wonder why they are doing it. What is the driving force that causes these athletes to go to these extremes? Are they crazy? A "normal" person goes to work 5 or more days a week and they get paid as a reward. What do these adventure racers get as a reward?

Beyond Adventure Sports e-zine
boundaryquest@hotmail.com

This site is about adventure and expedition racing. The "us" behind this professional veil, is really one man. My name is Jack Crawford, and I am an adventure racer. You can see my race resume here. I have been producing this website since 1996. I am intrigued with the concept that we, humans, can use sports to examine ourselves. In the words of Dr. George Sheehan,"Sport will not build character; it will do something better. It will make a man free. It has this tremendous potential for self-revelation. What we want to know is who we are, and sport can tell us quickly, painlessly and as surely as any other human activity." Expedition racing may not be what you consider quickly, or painlessly, but it has incredible potential for self-revelation. It also provides a sense of present danger and a feeling of mortal consequence. It is possible to die in one of these events. But I think what we are after is the time that we feel we are truly living.
I have experienced many of these events, and I will try to explain them after the fact, but imperfectly. The only way for you, the reader to know these things that I write, and to see the truth in them, is to experience it for yourself. One of my goals in writing and producing this e-zine, is to encourage you to participate in an adventure sport. Another of my goals is to inspire you to go outside and find yourself.