Like a lot of folks in the adventure racing community, I have already gone to see the new movie Arthur the King. If you have somehow missed this release, go check out the film while it's in theaters. Now that I've seen it with Strong Machine Adventure Racing there were a few things that stuck out to me that I'd like to mention in a brief review here.

Imagine a rolling countryside covered in farms and olive trees, occasionally dotted by mountaintop chapels, medieval castles, Roman bridges and tiny villages tucked into the hillsides and valleys. Terras de Trás-os-Montes (the Lands Beyond the Mountains) seems to stretch on forever in all directions. Separated from the rest of Portugal by the Duoro River valley in the south and Spain in the north and east, this corner of the country offers adventure to all those who travel there. 

If you haven’t seen the Amazon original series, “Eco Challenge Fiji: The World’s Toughest Race,” do yourself a favor and binge it next weekend to get a feel for what it’s like to be an adventure racer.. If you’re still interested in getting into the game after that, read on. Like many adventure racers, I saw Mark Burnett’s Eco Challenge in the 1990s and was enthralled and inspired by athletes who could cover epic distances over unthinkable times. That series launched a wave of interest into adventure racing that has been renewed thanks to the high production value reboot with outdoor personality Bear Grylls. I started adventure racing almost by mistake in 2016 and I have really come to love the sport and the community. I’m in better shape now at 38 than I have ever been in my life, and I owe it all to adventure racing.