Some interesting points, but hey, let me stick in my 2 pennerth.

The ARWC in Portugal was an interesting race. More interesting than most, to be honest, in that the format encouraged thinking rather than just being first over the line. Not a slight on Nike, Orion etc, but, like a lot of others, they didn't get their heads round the format until late in the race. They were trying to push for all the CPs because the race director had said 'the best team will get them all' which, it turned out, was wrong. It didn't push that angle too much in the programme, but Helly Hansen won because they out-thought their opposition, which is as much part of a competitive expedition as strength and speed..

How do I know? Watch the film again, you might spot me in the background of it… no, not that one… that one…just there. One of the ones with the cameras and the notepads. 😀

Back to the OP's question – what is the point? – I don't know. I DO know that I enjoy Adventure Races a damn sight more than I do XC/Enduro ones. At least in AR you have to think, you have to navigate, and you have something to keep your brain going. You have a team around you, so there's always a bit of banter. You break up the monotony of grinding out the miles on foot or bike with the adrenaline shot of an abseil, a canyoning stage, a swim in a lake. You trek, bike and kayak your way through some amazing landscapes that, otherwise, you'd never get off your arse to go and see because they're too remote. You get the sleepmonsters – sleep-deprived hallucinations of things both entertainingly weird and frighteningly normal (my best was garden gnomes on all the rocks over the Devil's Staircase) – and giggle along with your team when you realise. You fall over the line sodden, bedraggled and absolutely shot, and within 24hrs you're planning the next one. You look at short races as "Ach, it's only 6hrs" and long races as "it's only 5 days", because you've pushed yourself past where you thought it was so many times, you've totally lost sight of where your limit is.

Well, that's how it is for me, anyway. Can't speak for anyone else…

Oh – and to add a comment about fees – goddammit I always forget something – it depends on the race.

The next 'big' races in the UK for this season are the Hebridean Challenge and Open Adventure's Adidas Terrex AR

The former is a 750km race, 5 days of running, road and mountain biking, sea kayaking and swimming with set overnight stops, running the full length of the Outer Hebrides (Barra to the Butt of Lewis) and costs £350pp

The latter is a brand new race for this season, 4-day expedition race (continuous, no set stops) and costs £338pp. Judging by Open Adventure's track record (Open 5s, 12 and 24) it should be an awesome race.

That might seem expensive, but for that length of race, both of those are crackingly good value. I'm hoping to race at the Terrex, and have raced the Heb twice previously.

Wow I never expected such a reaction!

I've done a number of mtb 24hr/endurance events, but I wouldn't expect to see me on the TV (not that even claim to be remotely fit!) or even say the Red Bull 24hr…or whatever its called these days on at relatively prime time TV (OK it was shown in the 90's in the middle of the night!)

Yes these folk are fit, but they are not world class athletes, they are just a bunch of (fit) middle class folk having a nice day out, so therefore I can't see why it was on the telly…

I wouldn't expect to see a 24 hour/endurance event on TV either – because it would make awfully boring TV. Are you really suggesting that the programme you saw had no more interest to it than people racing round in circles for 24 hours? You seem to be thinking that because the effort invovled is in some way comparable (it's not really) that it makes these events somehow equal in terms of press interest.

As to not being world class athletes – have you completely ignored everything said in this thread? Exactly what do you think makes somebody world class – the people taking part in this are the best in the world at what they do, what more do you want than that? I should also point out that there are big cash prizes for winning events like this, so it's hardly like there's no incentive for top athletes to devote themselves to this sport, with some being pretty much full time athletes (fairly sure Team Nike for instance do consider themselves professionals).

Still not sure where you get the idea they're not elite from – is that because they seem to be moving rather slower than you expect and doing significant amounts of walking? Did you actually pay attention to the distance they were covering and the height climbed – and you expect them to run it all? Maybe it's the programme compressing everything – you do realise that when they're showing the start and end of stages that there is a 10-12 hour gap between the two?

Not that that has a lot of relevence to being shown on "prime time" TV. It's there because it's an interesting programme which grabs an audience. They've certainly shown plenty of UK races with rather lower quality fields (I've even had a prominent role in some 😉 ) in similar timeslots over a number of years, which presumably means they get the viewing numbers.

But its all set out, helicopter back up, food tents on every corner. Its hardly and adventure is it?

Maybe not – but it's certainly a vast amount more adventurous than most other sports (I've not tried wolf raping). You do also get funny impressions from TV programmes – helicopter backup – maybe, but it's not necessarily easy to get a helicopter to you, and you might have to wait a while (if you extend that line of thinking far enough there's probably pretty much nothing that's an adventure, given you can even get rescued from the arctic ice sheet if things go wrong on your polar trek). Food tents on every corner – maybe, but the corners are rather a long way apart. Meanwhile competitors are off navigating themselves for hours on end through unfamiliar mountains with unfamiliar maps (probably good quality in Portugal – not necessarily so in other places I've been like Morocco, Croatia, or strangely enough Utah!), with no marshalls to point out the way. Also going places and doing things that normal people rarely if ever do.

If by your criteria that's not adventure, then I very much doubt anybody on here ever has an adventure.

Yes these folk are fit, but they are not world class athletes,

Dunc – this was a World Championship event, therefore by definition, these ARE world class athletes!

I can see your point, but I think you're missing something. What you're missing is the endurance element – these guys (and a few of them are good friends of mine) aren't going to win any 100m medals. But that's because they're in a completely different sport. Would you call a top-level Ironman triathlete "not world class" ? Or a top-flight orienteer? Marathon kayaker? Mountain biker? Because that's the background a lot of top Adventure Racers come from. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I've yet to see anyone from a track athletics background do well in AR. Like my old PE teacher would say "fit for what?" Just because AR doesn't attract the media attention that, say, BMX did in the Olympics, doesn't make it any less of a world class sport.

I'd also defy most people to (just taking a selection of the people in that vid) out-bike Mike Kloser, out-navigate Chris Forne, out-think Tom Gibbs, out-paddle Wayne Oxenham. And that's fresh, after 4 days of minimal sleep, most people aren't even standing, never mind still running. Even the guys at the back, including the team I was reporting for, are capable of pushing themselves for 5 days on about 6hrs sleep. There's not many 'average joes' who are happy to do that regularly.

No beef with people doing this, same as most hobbies, but why on earth did Channel 4 used to show a load of students doing this sort of thing on Sunday morning?

I saw it a couple of times last year anyway. It annoyed me because I know they sometimes had good stuff like PROFESSIONAL freeride or DH events in that timeslot.

I don't know, to be honest. It depends what gets more viewers.

I used to enjoy watching the downhill stuff on C4 of a morning, but the way it was shot always made it look so slow. I know it probably wasn't, but it looked it.

I got on telly for the MS challenge UK. Me on the bike at the front of the pack – I gave the camera man the gun show. As you do.