Hello adventure racers, I hope you are having a great start to winter and the holiday season. The “off-season” is a great time for us to be planning logistics and scouting courses for our upcoming year, and truth be told for the last 2 months as we’ve been doing all that, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about 1 specific idea a lot, and trying to figure out how to bring it to fruition.

I’m a big advocate of having a Family Division, a No-Biking Division and beginner friendly options at our races to get more and more people introduced to this wonderful sport; and it’s been amazing seeing those divisions becoming some of our biggest. At the same time, we’ve tried to create some sort of “ladder system” of race options and it has been amazing watching racers of all ages graduate up to bigger/longer more ambitious races. 

Part of the reason I’ve been passionate about this is because I have 3 kids of my own. All 3 have done adventure races with me over the years, my youngest “riding along” for his first race when he was 4. My kids are getting a little older now and while my oldest did his first adventure race when he was 7, he’s 13 now, time flies. A couple of years ago he wanted to know when he could do races on his own. So Kelly and I worked out a plan to work up to it: first we started by letting him navigate Quantico Orienteering Club courses with us shadowing him without a map in our hands. He quickly showed us he could navigate well on his own, and problem solve navigation mistakes. So then we started letting him do a few of the orienteering courses completely on his own with a phone in his pocket for safety (and having the phone send us his location track for mom’s sanity 😊).

Now he's coming to me weekly asking if he can do Spring Bloom Adventure Race with just his friends (who have been joining him occasionally for orienteering), no parents on the team, cause parents aren’t cool anymore... He’s proven his navigation abilities are up to the standard of our shorter races, so my wheels have been spinning on how to make this happen safely, and within the comfort of Kelly and his teammate’s parents, not just mine. 

One example we thought of: since Enabled Tracking is already on-site at our races GPS tracking teams in our larger races, we could give GPS trackers to a youth team in the shorter race so parents will always know where the team is.

But I quickly thought, there’s many of you who have been racing with us over the years, and I’ve watched your kids go from being passengers in the canoe, to the ones powering the boat cause mom/dad don’t go fast enough, hah. 

So here we are, BROR is officially starting a Youth Division at our sprint-length races! Historically our race policy has been that anyone 14-or-under had to be on a team with an adult, instead we are carving out an exception to that rule, to both enable some kids that are ready for the challenge, but also ensure their safety there will be requirements as laid out below.

BROR ‘Youth Division’ Requirements:

• Teams only (no soloists, safety in numbers).
• If your kiddo can’t make a team, we’re happy to put you in touch with other families with interested kids.
  
  
• Minimum age = 11, Maximum age = 17, at the time of the race.
• We’re gearing this toward “Middle-School-Aged” and “High-School-Aged” kids.
• This means we could have a team age mix of both “High School / Middle School”
• If anyone is 18 or older, then the team would go into our Family Division instead. 

• At least 1 adult/parent must be on-site throughout the entirety of the race.
• Must have phone / ability to contact team and race staff.
• Must be capable of going out onto the course to “rescue” lost team if needed. 

• Team / Parents must fill out application / questionnaire proving team has experience / capability.
• Team’s Captain must have participated in at least 3 prior adventure races and/or orienteering events with demonstrated results. 

• Team must pass pre-race skills/knowledge check.
• Basic First Aid knowledge (they know what’s in the kit and how to use it).
• Paddling skills check – can they paddle a canoe?
• Can team move a canoe to/from the water with little/no assistance?
• Biking skills check (if race has biking).

• Flatwater courses only, will not be offering this on courses with moving water (for now). 

How to enter a team in the Youth division? Just sign up for the race like normal, but selection Youth Division when creating the team, and we will follow up with the application / questionnaire to get things rolling.