Bruce Swanson
45 yrs old, married with 2 children
Home: Warwick, New York
Occupation: IT Manager at a Major Shipping Company
Motivation for Adventure Racing
I moved into adventure racing from mountain bike and canoe racing as a way to further extend my athletic capability into other disciplines and as an opportunity to enjoy remote areas of the outdoors where people seldom travel. The combination of these two interests has created the drive needed to maintain an intense exercise regimen, maintain a considerable outdoor equipment inventory and keep my outdoor skills sharp. The combination of racing disciplines, changing venues, team dynamics and last-minute course and event details makes this sport very challenging on numerous fronts.
Prior Racing Experience
Adventure Racing: I've competed in all regions of the U.S. and in Canada. Some of the notable events include Raid the North Extreme (Yukon, CN), Florida Coast to Coast, Adventure XStream (Moab, UT), E-Fix (WV), Swamp Stomp (FL), USARA Nationals (CA, MO), Appalachian Extreme (ME).
Ultrarunning: I'm fortunate to have the Appalachian Trail passing through the hills above my town. A typical weekend will have one or two early morning training runs on this or nearby trails. As an extension of this, I've competed in a number of 50 and 100 mile runs. These include the Wasatch Front 100, Western States 100, Leadville 100, Massanutten 100 and the Hellgate 100k.
Additional: I've completed the Empire State Building Run-Up placing in the top 20% of the competitors going up 86 floors of stairs. The Sears Tower climb ascended 104 floors as a more competitor-friendly time trial where I finished in the top 5%. The Texas Water Safari paddling race traversed 260 river miles - from roughly the center of the state to the Gulf of Mexico. I raced mountain bikes competitively in NORBA Sport Class, later upgraded to Expert Class.
Year 2008 Planning Philosophy
The prior two years have yielded numerous top-5 finishes in 24-hour races and a key 8th place finish of 87 teams at the USARA Nationals last fall. We will enter three multi-day events: E-Fix, Untamed New England and the Moab Adventure XStream. We will add to this a handful of 24-hour events to establish a national ranking - including the USARA Nationals. We'll add to this base set of events as time and schedules permit, including running events as well.
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