ABOUT USARA

The United States Adventure Racing Association has been the primary national organizing body of adventure racing in the U.S. for over twenty years. Troy Farrar founded USARA in 1998 with the intention of making the sport more accessible to novice racers while creating more robust safety standards and offering high quality insurance at an affordable price for race directors. Since then, USARA has sought to advance the sport through various initiatives and programs, including USARA-sanctioned event calendars and rankings, individual mentoring for race directors, and the organization of a National Championship, with a corresponding sponsorship program for Regional Qualifiers.
 
In 2020, a new leadership group assumed responsibility of USARA and is committed to restructuring USARA as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. This new leadership team will continue to build upon the strong foundations already in place thanks to the work of those who came before, and will work with the greater adventure racing community to expand the organization’s reach and impact. Since its founding, USARA has worked to encourage the growth of the sport and bring together racers and race directors across the nation. The new team will cultivate an even stronger, more unified, and more vibrant adventure racing community in the US.

Executive Director

Mike Garrison grew up with no disciplined athletics, but has always loved adventure and the outdoors; skiing, climbing, hiking, and mountain biking whenever possible. He was first introduced to adventure racing by watching Eco -in the late 90’s. After thinking of it as a “someday maybe” for years, he completed a Don Mann-directed sprint race in 2001. In 2002, he worked his way up to his first 24-hour race, which his team won by staying found and not quitting. That was it, he was hooked. His career highlights from racing on a variety of teams include dozens of 24-hour races across the country with a handful of wins and a 2nd place finish at Nationals in 2014. He has also completed several expedition races, starting with Untamed New England in 2012 and culminating most recently with Eco Challenge: Fiji in 2019. Garrison has also directed races from sprint to 36 hours in length in central and southern Indiana and will reliably tell anyone who will listen that it’s harder than racing. In 2018, he joined the board of the Adventure Racing Cooperative, deciding it was time to contribute directly to the future of the sport he loves, and he looks forward to continuing that endeavor with USARA.

Michael Garrison

Board of Directors

  • Brent Freedland

    Brent Freedland discovered Eco-Challenge as a teenager, and he spent the next decade daydreaming about adventure races. Since 2006, he has competed in over 100 events, including 11 USARA National Championships and 12 expedition races. Racing highlights include winning the 2018 USARA National Championship and 2018 podium finishes at XPD and Untamed New England, but his favorite memories are the little moments with his teammates out on the course. In addition, Brent has directed events for over a decade, first with GOALS ARA and then as a co-founder of Rootstock Racing with his wife, Abby. He has worked with USARA for almost as long, as the Ranking Coordinator, a Racer Rep, and an advisory board member. He counts his work with Rootstock Racing as his greatest accomplishment in the sport to date and loves designing courses and watching racers explore them. He lives in Philadelphia with his family.

  • Abby Perkiss

    Abby Perkiss volunteered at her first AR in 2006, at which time she declared that she could never do an adventure race. A year later, she completed her first adventure race, and has since competed in dozens of events at the regional, national, and international levels. She is a two-time USARA national champion who still ranks learning to rappel off the garage roof as one of the highlights of her racing career. In 2010, Abby began designing and directing races, first under the banner of the GOALS Adventure Racing Association and then as Rootstock Racing, which she and teammate/husband Brent Freedland founded in 2015. Abby believes that the best part of adventure racing is working together with teammates to create something better than the sum of their individual parts. She lives in Philadelphia with Brent and their two kids, Zoe - who currently prefers RDing to racing - and Simon, the newest member of the team.

  • Stephanie Ross

    Stephanie Ross competed in her first adventure race in 2002, Odyssey's twelve-hour Jeep Kentucky AR at Carter Caves State Resort Park. She raced it solo and was completely demoralized by the course - and also completely hooked on the sport. A year later, she designed her first race, the Red River Gorge American Classic, aka the Fig, now the longest-running adventure race in Kentucky. She continued to organize races under the Flying Squirrel Adventure banner until 2015, when she turned over the Unbridled AR series and the Fig to 361 Adventures. Her efforts now focus on bringing more women (and youth) into the sport, through the Women of AR campaign. She has directed two USARA National Championships and has assisted with planning and vetting courses for Nationals since 2010.

  • Cliff White

    Cliff White competed in his first adventure race at age 18 and has been hooked ever since. Cliff has now raced in 18 states and six countries on three continents, including five USARA National Championships, three Adventure Race World Series events and the 2019 Eco-Challenge in Fiji. In between, he also squeezed in a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, a thru-paddle of the Maine Island Trail, and more than 20 ultramarathons. As half of the leadership team of Strong Machine Adventure Racing (along with wife Kate), Cliff has been a race director for five years, putting on the Maine Summer Adventure Race and the Wildlands Adventure Challenge. He believes that adventure racing should exist and be fun for all types of racers, that the sport is the perfect way to get people active in the outdoors, and that an adventure race is not an adventure race without some epic paddling. He lives in Portland, Maine, with Kate, their son Wilder, and their adventure pup Mose.

  • Kate White

    Kate White participated in her first adventure race in 2012 with her husband, father-in-law, and friend, and crossed the finish line at the back of the pack. Nonetheless, she was intrigued by the sport and has spent the years since then learning, training, and pushing her limits. Race career highlights include many USARA National Championships, a tour of races from coast-to-coast in more than a dozen states, and expedition racing around the world including ITERA in Ireland, Nordic Islands in Sweden and Norway, and Eco Challenge in Fiji. Kate also co-directs races as part of Strong Machine Adventure Racing and enjoys balancing the suffering and the fun in the courses she designs. Kate lives in the adventure paradise of Portland, Maine with her husband (Cliff), son (Wilder), and dog (Mose), where her favorite activities include sea kayaking and hiking or running in the hills.

Additional Personnel

  • Rachael Abler

    Rachael Abler has worked in collegiate outdoor programming for over a decade, serving as the Associate Director of Outdoor Education at Colorado College. A native Michigander, Rachael discovered the love of the outdoors as a child, enjoying access to endless adventures: exploring the woods of her backyard and traveling “up north” for camping, biking, paddling, and skiing trips with family and friends. So, essentially, she has been adventure racing from the very beginning! Rachael was introduced to the more formalized world of AR in 2009, when she took an "AR 101” course, partaking in a few local races before taking a pause to pursue grad school and her career. She has since shifted her focus back to AR, driven by the camaraderie, challenge, growth, fun, and the sense of adventure these races provide. When not actively racing, Rachael is training, volunteering, or researching upcoming races, and she is motivated to help others enter the sport as well.

  • Bill Donohue

    SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR

    William “Wild Bill” Donohue has been adventure racing since the turn of the century. He was looking to go beyond the world of marathoning and continue the vagabond lifestyle of eclectic outdoor sports he cultivated through SUOC, the Syracuse University Outing Club.

    His college roommate got wind of Eco Challenge and signed them up for the Pittsburgh stop of the Hi-Tec Adventure Race Series. They both had backgrounds in marathon running, mountain biking, paddling, and rock climbing, plus all the gear to go needed--so it was a natural fit.

    He thinks his team placed 22nd overall at the USARA Nationals in 2012 and has a fourth-place finish at the NCARS Championship Solo Division. He has a bunch of podiums in 12 hour and sprint races in all sorts of divisions— solo, coed, all male. However, he likes to say that he has a whole lot of stories but doesn’t really keep track of the AR finishes. At some point, it stopped being about the race and started being about the adventure

  • Allen Wagner

    WEBMASTER

    Allen Wagner is both an adventure racer and also Race Director for Broad Run Off Road who puts on the “Spring Bloom” and “Fall Foliage” adventure races in Northern Virginia. Being on the “newer” side of AR, having only done his first AR in 2018, Allen saw a need to focus more heavily on beginner/introductory adventure races and trying to break down the barriers to entry for those not quite ready to dive into the very deep end of 24hr+ races.

    When not race directing Allen can always be found enjoying the outdoors with his wife and kids, and still competing in cycling and adventure races and contending for podiums with a focus on “fun” rather than the “suffering.” Allen is also a big advocate of the community and outdoors, leading volunteer efforts for building new trails and passionate about building a welcoming adventure racing community.

Founder

Troy Farrar founded Terra Firma Promotions, one of the pioneering companies to produce adventure races in the United States. Terra Firma produced over 200 events under Troy’s leadership, with the mission of bringing extraordinary adventures into the lives of ordinary people. In 1998, Troy founded the USARA and has served as the president for 22 years. Under Troy’s guidance, the USARA has developed safety standards, insurance coverage, a national ranking system and the USARA Adventure Race National Championship. Troy has competed in over 100 adventure races in three different countries, dozens of 12 and 24 hour mountain bike races and the Texas Water Safari which is dubbed the World’s Toughest Boat Race. Racing highlights include several 12 and 24 hour mountain bike race wins and two podium finishes at the USARA Sprint Adventure Race National Championship. Troy and his wife Debbie are focused on creating the same spirit of adventure in their son and daughter and look forward to the day when the Farrar tribe competes in their first adventure race together.

Troy Farrar