Last year, the producers of a Discovery Channel program contacted Dontgetlost Adventure Running. They were planning the second season of their show, Canada's Greatest Know It All and asked us to plan a navigation based challenge for one of the episodes of the new season.

The episode was filmed in June 2012, on a brutally hot and humid day and aired in February of this year. The challenge played out extremely well, with one team showing a real affinity for navigation and the other struggling and constantly going off course. The producers of the show did an excellent job of showing the challenges of Adventure Running and the struggles of a group dynamic in these situations (something our Giant's Rib Raid teams may experience next month!).

Tonight in Hamilton, our Adventure Running X group of teens will take on the second challenge from the episode, where they need to find ten checkpoints located around the property of Camp Canterbury Hills as quickly as possible, planning the most efficient route. 

Beating the winning Know It All team is going to be tough, as the faster team collected all checkpoints in 24 minutes! It's not quite a perfect match up, as there are a lot of differences between taking this challenge in June vs March:

• Forest Visibility: ARXers have the advantage here. As we transition from Winter the Spring, there are no leaves on the trees and all the ground vegetation is non-existent. Some checkpoints may actually be visible from each other at the moment!
• Temperature: Again, advantage ARX. With 5°C forecast tonight vs 40°C ish with the humidex for the Know It Alls (KIAs).
• Production Breaks: The KIAs were followed by a camera crew in the woods. These guys were chasing the KIAs with a massive camera on their shoulders - it was an amazing feat to witness. Occasionally they needed a break to rehydrate at which point the clock was stopped for fairness between teams, but this would allow the KIAs time to recover a little. This is a luxury ARX will not have!
• Ground Conditions: After a long, dry Spring, the KIAs had no problem climbing up and sliding down the ravines of Camp Canterbury Hills. Ther ARXers instead have to contend with recent thaw conditions, ice & slush. Some routes that the KIAs were able to take may not be physically possible at the moment!
• Experience: Some of the Adventure Running X members have been running in these woods for years! Some of them won't even need a map to locate some of the checkpoints!

We're actually not sure who will come out on top. If the ground was solid, we think ARX would win this hands down - but the mud & slush will be a great equaliser. Stay tuned, we'll provide a full update on Friday, with GPS and headcam footage!

You can watch the episode of Canada's Greatest Know It All here. If you are interested in trying similar navigation challenges, check out our Adventure Running Series: the Hard Rock Enduro (5k or 10k) is on this Saturday March 30, or the Giant's Rib Raid (teams of 3, 12k or 25k) is on April 13, near Milton.

Are these guys smarter *and* faster than Canada's Greatest Know It All?

Registration for Adventure Running Kids Spring 2013 season is now open! Whether it's your first time signing up for the program or you've been at it for years, we'd like to let you know of some changes to the program going forward to and give you some hints on navigating the online registration form.

Changes to the Program

Minimum Age

We've been a little flexible in the past, however to make sure there is no confusion we are setting a strict age limit. Participants must have turned six by 1 April 2013 to take part in the Spring 2013 season of the program. We find due to the complexity of some of the exercises in the program and the physical difficulty of others, kids under that age struggle. We want the program to be a fun and positive experience for all involved. Although it may seem not be much of a condolence, the next season is always only 6 months away!

Maximum Kids/Hour Cap

Again, in the past we've been flexible with group and hour numbers. But we found this season, when groups became too large they became unmanageable - no matter how many Group Coaches we had. We will be capping every group at 15 kids and with four groups max in any one hour, makes a maximum of 60 kids in any one hour of ARK. Once it's full, it's full!

Friend Requests

The most popular part of ARK is getting to run with friends. Part of the registration form allows you to list your kids friends that they'd like to run with.

It is not possible to plan the program, determine number of groups per hour and assign volunteers to groups if we are still rearranging participants on the day the program is meant to begin (which has happened in every season past!). So, the friend request field is only available up until March 8 at midnight. From this date on the ARK groups will be formed.

Also, we are now requesting that you only list 2 friends maximum per registration. This is to stop large friend 'chains' forming, which may create groups with large age & ability ranges. More on that below.

Price

We have raised our fees slightly this season. We have kept our ARK prices steady for 2 years, so this price rise simply represents the usual inflation/cost of living increase. KW participants will notice their fees are a little higher - this is due to some expenses required to secure locations that aren't present in Hamilton and Niagara.

Registration Tips and Tricks

So now there are a number of locations, hours and night kids can take part - but sometimes people miss out. In order to make sure you sign up and get the hour you want, here's some help.

1. Sign up early!

It's kind of obvious, but the sooner you sign up the more likely you will get the day and hour you prefer! We can move kids around between days and hours if there is space available as well.

2. Offer to Volunteer

We need between 10-16 volunteers per hour to allow the program to run smoothly and safetly, so will always save a few spots in each hour if we start to get close to capacity and don't yet have enough volunteers. If the hour you want is full and you'd like/be able to volunteer in that hour (roles for all types - check out the Volunteering article for more info), contact us and it's likely a space or 2 might suddenly become available.

Friends

Although we have asked that people only list two friends they would like to be in groups with, we don't want to stop large groups of friends running together! Talk with other parents and be tactical with your friend selections. If kids are all of similar age, it is very likely they will be with all their friends any way as we group kids by age first and foremost. 

If you ask for friends or siblings that are significantly different in age to be together - be aware that one of the kids will likely end up in a group where most of the other members are older or younger. 

Contact Details

All of the communication for the program is done via email. The first email address that you fill in during registration will be the point of contact (we will also send information to a second address if you provide one). Please make sure you also list ' This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ' as a safe address or to your contacts. Our mail is sometimes eaten by voracious spam filters and we have no control over that!

Tax Receipt

Immediately after you sign up, you will receive an email receipt to the primary address. This is both confirmation that you successfully registered for the program AND your tax reciept should you wish to claim it on your tax return. Please make sure you keep it if you plan on doing so.

OK, now you got all that - head on over to Registration and get started!