By Jody Jewers
The Daily News

It will take a lot to keep Mark Campbell away from the world of adventure racing.

Campbell, a 35-year-old Dartmouth resident, will compete in the Eco-Challenge North American championships in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., from July 18 to 26, with the possibility of advancing to a world championship-calibre competition next spring.

Last October, Campbell and three friends from Calgary attended Eco-Challenge Fiji, a six-to-12 day non-stop trek through a 300-mile course using mountain biking, river rafting, horseback riding, mountaineering and fixed ropes, kayaking and navigation skills. The event was founded in 1992 by Mark Burnett, who helped usher in the reality-TV craze with the creation of the CBS series Survivor.

‘Here we are again’

“We all sold it to our spouses as a once-in-a-lifetime event, but here we are again,” said Campbell, a network manager for the Land Force Atlantic Area Headquarters in Halifax, a division of the Department of National Defence.

Campbell is lucky to be here after the Fiji competition. He slipped on a rock while crossing a river one evening and suffered a gash close to his right eye. Because rescue crews weren’t allowed to fly at night, Campbell had to huddle under a rock in the rain with his team overnight while waiting to be airlifted to hospital.

“It closed my eye completely,” said Campbell. “But there was no major damage done.”

Campbell, who began training for a triathlon in 1992, has been attending the Ironman Canada competition in British Columbia, the last nine years. It was there that he was first introduced to adventure racing, which led him to a partnership with Calgarians Sarah Hyland, Kevin Hakl and Peter Wieninger. The quartet finished fourth at last year’s Eco-Challenge North American championships in B.C., and received a spot at Eco-Challenge Fiji when another team couldn’t afford to go.

Only the North American winners got their expenses paid for the trip to the Pacific Ocean island. Campbell’s team coughed up the $14,500 US entry fee.

“I knew one of the guys in the ironman, and his friend was Sarah,” said Campbell. “We got to talking about adventure racing, and I said, ‘Sure, sign me up.’

“It’s really a test mentally as much as it is physically, but I’ve never backed out of a race except when myself or a teammate has been injured.”

No slowing down

Campbell shows no signs of slowing down. Some of his recent training sessions have included walking through the woods while following Route 1 — the old highway, not provincial highway 101 — from Sackville to Windsor, a bike ride on Cape Breton’s Cabot Trail and a run around the perimetre

of Kejimkujik National Park in Maitland Bridge, Annapolis Co.

“I’ve been able to see some pretty neat spots,” said Campbell. “I saw seven mountain passes during one section of a trip, and that’s something I’ll never forget.”

jjewers@hfxnews.ca

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