Meeting with Jérôme Lollier, founder of Canal Aventure and organizer of the Roadsign Continental Challenge.
For 3 years, Roadsign Continental Challenge joins in a singular approach. The ambition of Canal Aventure and Roadsign, partner of the Challenge, is not to increase the number of participants in the races. It mainly consists in regaining the original spirit of Adventure running race.
The Challenge is based on the authenticity
20 years ago, Adventure Races gathered runners livened up by the desire to discover “lost” and “authentic” places. The participants had the will to break with their daily environment and feel closer to nature. Today, there is a lot of supposed “Adventure races” but the spirit and the motivations are not the same anymore.
“Some runners pay a lot of attention to the choice of equipment and the media coverage of a race on the social networks. It happened that runners do not wish to come on our events because there is no Internet on the bivouac. On Facebook, some blame us for not broadcasting enough photos during the competitions. We take it into account but these remarks are not our priority. One of the Roadsign Continental Challenge aspirations is to participate in building societies based on the joy of living rather than on the will to possess or to be exposed.”
4th stage of the Ultra BOLIVIA Race, the participants discover their bivouac on the Isla Del Pescado…
The Challenge values the capacity of adaptation of the participants
Roadsign Continental challenge values performance, regularity and the capacity of adaptation of the competitors. To finish or win, you should not run fast but especially be regular and capable of performance on variable races and in different environments.
“From green mountains of Vietnam to the Bolivian Altiplano, via the Australian desert, the Alps of Lyngen in Norway and the sand of Mozambique, participants in the Challenge must be physically prepared but especially show a big capacity of adaptation to evolve in these very specific natural areas.”
THE TRACK, Competitors in the Australian desert, between Alice Springs and Uluru.
Discover the real taste of the adventure
Roadsign Continental challenge is finally a metaphor of life… Punctuated with tests which it is necessary to exceed. The participants have ups and downs. They doubt… sometimes, they are afraid. They have to push away their physical and more their psychological limits. Fight the personal brakes which prevent them from moving forward. Day after day, the steps of Roadsign Continental challenge teach them who they are and reveal their potential.
The participants who join the races of the Challenge have something more. They are sportsmen and women trying to surpass themselves but also “adventurers”. These competitors dare to get out of their comfort zone. They accept the idea to commit in a long distance race, in a new environment, with much fewer references than in the case of a “publicized” race.
“The runners of the Challenge choose jump into the unknown and the discovery. They give up the superfluous to get to the core stuff. They decide to take part in races not to feel as anybody but to live singular adventures. They are bold and ready to discover the real taste of adventure.”
Ultra AFRICA Race, Great smiles after running 220 km in Mozambique.
Keep a careful eye to discover the world
Beyond the sports challenge and the overtaking, Roadsign Continental Challenge aspires to offer to the participants the possibility of exploring the world. The choice of the destinations is based on the discovery of places protected from the often negative impacts of the economic and tourist development. Places still little visited and preserving their authenticity.
No question of running with eyes fixed to its shoes or its watch to see if we are well-positioned. Roaming the Challenge is to use a sports practice helping to meet a country. Keep a careful-eye to appreciate the landscapes which surround us and people we meet.
“The aim is to become aware of our individual responsibility on environmental issues and with the wish of a fair development. We can all, somehow or other, play an important role for the future. It is essential to participate to this kind race with wide open eyes to realize the chance which we have to be free. Our differences are also our strength. To be respectful and open-minded allows each to love and understand better the world.”
Share our Challenges with the population in Africa is a real moment of happiness!
More information about the Roadsign Continental Challenge
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