Top photo: Richie Wilhelm digging deep at Red Bull Archer’s Paradox, held in Hastings, Minn.
Bow in hand and arrows on my back, I lurched down a rocky, loose switchback toward a target. My legs felt emptied, my heart rate jacked as I fumbled to nock an arrow.
One big, slow breath to settle my body, draw, and take aim. I let my arrow fly and watched it slam into the target 41 yards away. I was halfway through the course. This is Archer’s Paradox.
Red Bull and Matthew’s Bows co-hosted a first-of-its-kind event at Afton Alps Ski Resort in the river bluff region of east-central Minnesota this past weekend. The Red Bull Archer’s Paradox attracted a field of 34 bow-and-arrow-wielding men and women to compete in the biathlon-like run and shoot event.

Red Bull Archer’s Paradox: The Course
The one-mile course sounds easy on paper, but from the gun, it was an unrelenting suffer-fest. Straight up the ski slope to target No. 1, your heart rate was pegged. The course led us along loose, sandy roads; rocky, rutted, and slippery singletrack; and up winding switchbacks.
Unconventional Targets

Athletic Archery
Running With a Bow
