Competing against 21 other teams of all ages, 14-year-old Ian Dunlap put on a solo orienteering clinic and nabbed first place at the 2022 Mission Lite Adventure Race.
Like triathlons or ultras, adventure races demand a varied skillset and sustained focus. Although there’s no standardized format for adventure racing, most events involve human-powered travel on foot, bicycle, and canoe.
Races take place in multiple segments, where teams of one, two, or three utilize map-and-compass navigation to locate waystations or checkpoints. For every checkpoint they reach in a preset timeframe, teams earn points. In the case of a points tie, the fastest team takes the glory.
Mission Lite Adventure Race
On May 7, Ian Dunlap participated in the Mission Lite — a 4-hour race hosted by Do INdiana Off-road (D.IN.O). Except for 14-year-old Dunlap and three other teams, all competing parties had two or three members.
When the dust cleared, Dunlap had reached nine checkpoints in 3 hours and 48 minutes to earn the top spot on the podium. He finished 12 minutes faster than the next solo racer and a whopping 27 minutes ahead of the second-place team.
Per D.IN.O’s race rules, competitors are allowed to bypass certain segments of the racecourse in exchange for a one-point penalty. The participants don’t know the sequence of the segments beforehand.
Skipping a segment is a risk. Competitors may choose to lose a point in favor of jumping ahead to the segments they feel more confident about.
But Dunlap used the rule to his advantage.