Adventure Racing: Heather Curwen Transcript
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Today we’re going to be speaking with Heather Curwen. She’s been a member of Team Revo, and we’re going to be talking to her about her background in the sport and 2004 and what lies ahead for her this coming season in 2005 as well.
The Race of the Day today is the Greater Cleveland Triathlon. It’s going to be the weekend of August 13th and 14th at Headlands Beach State Park in Mentor Ohio. You can click on the Race of the Day link for more information about the Cleveland Triathlon.
So we’re going to be right back to speak with Heather Curwen in about 30 seconds.”
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« Tim Bourquin »: “Heather thanks very much for joining us today. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.”
« Heather Curwen »: “Thank you Tim.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “How long have you been in adventure racing?”
« Heather Curwen »: “I was with the same team that ended up as Team Revo for the last three years. We started off as Team Sevlor; so three years adventure racing.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “How many races a season do you typically do?”
« Heather Curwen »: “We’re been doing the Balance Bar Series, which is 11 races.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Wow, that’s quite a bit for each season.”
« Heather Curwen »: “It is, it’s a lot.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Have you been sticking pretty much with the Balance Bar Series.”
« Heather Curwen »: “Yes, because it’s a great series. It’s a long series, and then you have eight sprint adventure races along with three 24 hour races, so it’s a good mix of races.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “You’re obviously the female on the team, so talk about what it’s like being the female. I guess there can be a lot of pressure on the female team member to really make sure you perform. Do you feel pressure like that, or do you just feel like any other team member?”
« Heather Curwen »: “No, I definitely feel a lot of pressure being the female on the team. Inevitably the female is going to be the weaker person because you obviously have two very strong male members on the team, so yes it’s a long of pressure. Theres definitely a lot more anxiety on me at the starting line. I’ve had a lot of pressure actually training too, just feeling like I always had to train to be so fast and not let the guys down, so yes it’s harder to be the female I think.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “When you first started out on the team, I know team dynamics is a huge part of adventure racing, has its got easier over the years as you’ve got to know your team members better?”
« Heather Curwen »: “Yes, definitely; you know how you respond during the races, what’s more difficult for each person and you know when someone is getting a little stressed out. I think I tend to be the mediator on the team, so I try to mellow everybody out and all of the guys out when they get too stressed out, but yes you learn what works better for somebody in different situations, like 24 hour races when they start to bonk, either you just leave them alone or they need to lead the group instead of lagging behind all the time.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “What do you feel like is your strong suite and what do you bring to the table for your team?”
« Heather Curwen »: “I think my strong suite is that I can do pretty much anything very well. I have good balance, if it’s a balance test like during the sprint races, good agility if we have to jump over a four foot wall. I can be pretty much be put into any application and do it well. My strongest sporting event is actually mountain biking.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “”Rights that’s your career, we talked a little bit before the start in the interview; you work in that industry.”
« Heather Curwen »: “Right, that’s how I started actually. That’s how Patrick Watson actually picked me up. I was on a mountain bike ride.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Had you heard of adventure racing at that point when he first brought you onboard?”
« Heather Curwen »: “I had actually because I had done one of the earlier Hi-Tech Series, which turned into the Balance Bar Series and I had just done it with a couple of people for a fun event. I’m obviously competitive so we did it competitively, but it wasn’t on the elite level. But I had done one of the races before.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Now you’re going to be taking a break, it sounds like, this coming year and being the alternate female for the team. Talk about what its taken these past few years to really balance life and all the training, racing and traveling that goes along with it.”
« Heather Curwen »: “It’s been a long of fun, but I definitely have had not a balanced life because of it. For the last three years I’ve worked full time and I work like 60 hours a week; I’m at a management level position in the mountain bike industry, I travel a lot with my job. I have a four year old so he’s kind of grown up through my racing. But what it took was just taking my son along with me training, so either my team we would kayak and he would sit in the middle of the kayak; we’d do on runs and he’d be in the jogger. We’d go do track workouts and he can play around on the track, so a lot of taking him with me. At work I would actually ride my bike to work, I live close enough to do that. I ride at lunch time, almost every day at work. So I had to try to fit it in anytime. I didn’t have four hour workouts that I had the luxury to fit into my lifestyle.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “When we spoke with Patrick he talked about the fact that everybody has lives in addition to racing, and most people in adventure racing have careers and jobs and families too.
What do you personally get out of adventure racing? Is it the high from crossing that finish line? What is it for you personally?”
« Heather Curwen »: “I love the way it challenges me completely and at the end of every race I think, ‘Oh my gosh, how did I even get through that,’ and then the accomplishment that you have, especially going through a 24 hour race, but even the short sprint races, makes you feel like in your own life outside of racing that I can do anything. I really feel like if I can get through this race, especially being the female on the team because I do have a lot more pressure; I feel like in my job daily I can achieve more. Its really does, because you go through the races and you sink to the lowest of the low, but you always get through it, especially with the help of your team mates you get through it.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “What’s the toughest race you’ve ever done?”
« Heather Curwen »: “Actually when we first started, our first year of adventure racing; it was in Detroit I think and we had very hot weather, very humid weather, I had been sick a little bit the week before and we ran out of water, we went on a seven mile run with an orienteering section in it, we ran out of water, I’m being towed back and this was before we really knew each other very well, and so my guys are dragging me along and I’m ‘Oh you guys, I’m really dizzy, I can’t do it,’ and they’re getting mad at me, like clipping me back on when I’m trying to hook off. You know at the end of every sprint races theres the 12 foot wall, I was right there in front of that wall and we couldn’t even get to the wall, that’s how far I’d sunk down. I’m telling my guys, ‘I’m not finishing this race,’ because that’s bad I felt. But they made me finish, they got me over that wall and now I can say, ‘Oh my gosh, how did I finish that race being as depleted as I was, but I did.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “I guess everybody has times when they’re saying, ‘What in the world am I doing out here?’ Does that happen less and less the more experience you get or because you keep challenging yourself to high levels it’s about the same?”
« Heather Curwen »: “Maybe I had that feeling a lot because; competing at the level we were, you’re competing against people who are not working full time, so with me working full time and traveling and having a child, I felt a lot like, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I doing out there.’ I didn’t get to train for 12 hours every day. I think you do get it less and less because you understand what you’re getting yourself into and you know the expectations during the race, so I think naturally you do get that less and less but maybe I was in a little different situation.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Is there more cross-over these days, people coming from triathlon or even Xterra, to come into adventure racing and going the other way as well?”
« Heather Curwen »: “Yeah, it sure seemed like a lot of people came from the triathlon background actually. For me, I plan on doing more Xterra races this year so it’s happening in the reverse for me.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “What made you decide to do that?”
« Heather Curwen »: “Well we talked about me being the alternate on the team; I think it’s easier for me to fit shorter races into my lifestyle and to not have two other team mates relying on me, so I can do individual events now. I also have a swimming background. Obviously the mountain biking I’m really strong at, and then the run, you know, you just hang on at the last part of the race.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Is the adventure racing community a pretty tight community? Do a lot of the teams know each other and are there a lot of friendships there? What’s the balance between that and being really competitive?”
« Heather Curwen »: “That was the best part of racing the adventure races, especially the Balance Bar Series because we were all at these events every other weekend. We were really close, very good friends. On the starting we’re joking with each other, hugging other, we’re all supporting each other out there during the event. So it’s a very close community. Theres obviously competition but everybody is helping and supporting each other throughout the race.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “There must be times during the race though, when you’ve been neck and neck with a team for the entire time and you can’t seem to shake them or they can’t seem to shake you; theres got to be some feeling there of win, its all about the competition. Am I wrong there or is adventure racing a little bit different?”
« Heather Curwen »: “No, I think you’re still right there. Especially on the navigating event you don’t want them to see which way you’re going because you know they’re just going to follow you, so theres definitely things like you want to try and sneak off so they don’t follow you. But there are times where you do choose to work together too, and actually that ends up benefiting both of you.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Now the races that you’ve done, it sounds like it’s the 24 hour, you start and everybody goes until they finish. Have you participated in any of the stage races where you’re stopping each night?”
« Heather Curwen »: “No, I haven’t done of those. Those are usually the multi-day races and I just don’t have the time off work to do those.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Have you ever considered doing any of the international races or again time constraints?”
« Heather Curwen »: “I would love too, we considered it. We were already doing so many Balance Bar races and with all of us having jobs it was hard to get more time to do it. I think if you focused on those events only then maybe you would do less per year and then it would be doable.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “How much strategizing do you do before the race even starts depending on what race you’re at. Do you talk a lot about what you’re going to do here and there or do you know each other well enough now that you just go?”
« Heather Curwen »: “Its funny because I think we’ve kind of tried both tactics of either staying up all night and trying to imagine in the sprint races what the special tests are going to be and you try to talk about it because its all covered up and you think you know what’s underneath, and that way the strategizing doesn’t do much good because by the time you get there its something totally different than what you talked about the night before. The good strategizing to do is to talk about the responsibilities for each team member during the race, so if I’m responsible for getting the kayak paddles and the lifejackets that’s my responsibility. They’re responsible for carrying the kayak down. If you talk about that stuff ahead of time that’s super helpful, you’re not just all in the transition area going, ‘What are we doing? What are we doing?’ So that kind of strategizing you do nee to do, but otherwise, like exactly what’s going to happen at this point and that point, you can’t really think ahead of everything ahead of time.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Have races been so close at times that those tiny factions of time that you’ve saved by planning ahead have helped?”
« Heather Curwen »: “Yes, especially in those sprint races. I mean just being able to put your shoes on fast enough, those seconds truly matter.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “Well Heather, thanks very much for talking with us today. Listeners, you can go to Team Revo’s page by clicking on the link below the link to this audio. Heather thanks a lot for talking with us today; it’s been a pleasure talking with you.”
« Heather Curwen »: “You’re welcome. I hope it gets more people out there adventure racing.”
« Tim Bourquin »: “I hope so too, I think we’ll definitely be doing that, so thanks.”
« Heather Curwen »: “Thanks.”
