Today on the merch is your podcast episode number 22. Adventure Racing is 1 of those sports. There's really a bunch of sports all wrapped into 1 big sport. It's like an off road triathlon in the woods, but with canoes, and orienteering. And then there's those maps. You get to decide your course.
Wow. This racing is really not like a triathlon at all. So how would you ever go about building 1 of these races? Fortunately, we're gonna talk a little of Venture Racing 101 today with Michelle Fusheh, founder and executive director of Venture Attics Racing. She's gonna set us straight. Let's roll. Thank you for joining me for the merchandiser podcast. I am Kyle Bondo. Your professional, Reconeer,
and racing business coach. And I'm here to make the art and science behind building, promoting, and directing those off road races, the ones you like to race, the ones do you like to build? Simple and understandable. That's the whole point behind Rechinir and behind the merch as a dirt podcast. Is simplicity and understandability.
Is that a word? Look. Let's say it is. Along with me is my cohost and everyone loves to hate Mr. Murphy and Mr. Murphy is our other educator is we like to see what goes wrong and teach you how to not do that. And that's why Mister Murphy is very effective tip in helping us do the things that we can have of way to come. And if you're new to the merch store podcast, welcome to a very special episode. Why is it special? Not only is it my very first interview on the Vertus of Her podcast, but it is 1 of those special shows where you get to hear from a race promoter that is out in the field right now building better races.
So if you're ready to take your race promotion skills to the next level, Then let me introduce you to today's guest, Michelle Fushe. Michelle is the founder and executive director of Adventure Addix Racing. Based right here in my own backyard is Charlottesville, Virginia. There is a lot of reasons
you wanna pay attention to what Michelle has to say. And what EventRadix Racing is doing. I mean, AAR currently produces not 1, but 4 EventRadix a year in probably the toughest format to build an offered racing, the Adventure Race format. And if that wasn't tough enough, They're involved in hosting this year's Exetera Charlottesville. And Exetera is another really tough format. Which brings a huge turnout. So they're not they're not slackers when it comes to building races.
Michelle is Also, the only race promoter of the United States, get this, that produces a women's only adventure race, and they call it the Buff Betty. And I didn't really think that was true at first, but I did some research and found out sure enough.
The Buff Betty is the only all women that Venture Race is in the United States right now. Now, if I'm wrong, play with all means, please. At Merchant's Adura on Twitter. Let me know. Let me know if I'm if I'm wrong. But I've asked a few adventure race for people out there, and they say they can't really find any other ones out there for adventure racing, and that's pretty cool. So with that being said, you can find all of this, though these epic races, go over to adventure addicts racing .com,
and sign up. They have a race coming up within just a couple weeks. I think registration closes by the time you hear this, probably been by the next weekend. On April 1st, They have to break the habit of interrace in Maryland, and that is a fantastic race. In fact, it's 1 of my first races I ever did with a interatics racing. It's the place where I formed
our adventure racing team, we grabbed some people just kind of off the Internet, and we all met for the first time at that race. And it was a it's a great race.
Great format. It's a lot of fun. There's always like spaghetti and party at the end. So these races are are more than just a race itself. You're starting to really feel the adventure racing community and the adventure addict's racing race, and that I think is the draw. That's the value that you kinda get out of that. Not only do you have fun, but it's the community afterwards that it's almost
better than the race itself. With that, let me introduce you to Michelle Fushet. Thanks for coming on the show. How are you doing today, Michelle?
I'm doing well. I'm doing great. Yeah. For having me. Fantastic. It's good to have you on. And thanks to your listener too, which is even better. So it's like you're a fan. We we love your podcast. We're we're big fans. Doing a great job, so keep up to good work. Well, thank you very much. It's it's great to have a listener and a race promoter. So you're kind of like you're you're from coming from it from both sides, which is fantastic. So just kinda jumping into this. Kinda tell me a little bit about the genesis of a Venture Or Attics Racing. And how do you started and what's your kinda take on where you kind of got to this point to actually start doing races. Okay. Yes. So we in electronics racing, we started back in the fall of 2011.
And created the organization
or the company with a good friend of mine, Andy Bacon, at the time we had been racing together for many years. Doing a lot of adventure races all over the country. We were coming home from a race 1 weekend, I believe. We were talking about the events and sort of saying to each other. You know, wouldn't it be a lot of fun if we put these things on ourselves? Well, I think we I think we could do it. I think it'd be fun. What a great job. Okay. And that's kinda how it started. We just a month later, we sat down and said, okay. Are we are we committed to doing this? And we both said yes, and we came up with some name, Adventure Attics Racing, and it was sort of a play on you know, adventure racing being very addicting. At least for both of us, and I think for a lot of people that get into the sports. So we thought it was a great name. And we we created the organization originally as an LLC.
And in March of 2012, we put on our 1st race via Treadmill and Rush. And we went from there. That's fantastic. So so, like, you when you started the beginning, you know, even before an intro at at racing, Were you always an endurance sports athlete? So it's, you know, it's funny. I I wasn't. I actually have a background in playing tennis. I was actually a professional I was actually a professional tennis player for 3 years Okay. The WTA tour, and I played
pretty much my whole childhood. My whole youth was was tennis, played for the University of Texas. And then I when I graduated, I TurnPro. They actually play on the tour for 3 years. You know, got to travel and see a lot of the world. And it was my day jobs, what I did. You know, 8 hours a day, and I really loved it. And then at a certain point, I just decided to call it a day. And
right at the very end of playing tennis by discovered adventure racing. I actually came across the eco challenge on TV. 1 at well, the tournament actually, and I was watching it and said, oh my god. It sound that just looks amazing. I wanna do that. And that's that's how I discovered it, discovered the sport. So I kinda transitioned
into a you know, from an individual sport into a team sport, kinda went from there. Wow. Dennis is a huge diversion to a venture racing. And I know you've been to Primal Quest. So how did you prepare yourself from the riggers of tennis practice and tennis competition to the adventure racing disciplines, or you kinda were were you doing that? It actually was it wasn't that big of a stretch. You know, I was obviously, to do a lot of event curating, particularly at a high level. It's a lot of training, a lot of discipline, I think. And that was already instilled in me, I think, playing tennis. You know, I was used to the long days of training and working out in the gym and, you know, eating healthy and, you know, being an athlete. So I think that that actually helps me going into the sport of adventure racing. I I wasn't used to getting up early and, you know, going out in training and things like that. But I also played on a team at the University of Texas, and so I I was familiar with the team aspect and the team concept. I really love being the team. And so I think that transferred well into
being on a race team, you know, for the sport of adventure racing. So when you when you started doing some of these, you you didn't just, like, do some easy adventure races at first. You kind of went for the crown jewel. It didn't suck. No 3 hours for you. Yeah. You know, actually, my first adventure adventure race was Venture Quest. Put on by Jim Harmon and EX 2 Adventures.
Okay. And that's actually how I found out about the sport was through Jim and EX 2. I actually blamed Jim for my adventure addiction.
But I I did rent request and just absolutely loved it. Back then, Odyssey Adventure Race was still was still around, and they were putting on a lot of events. And I signed up for the Odyssey Adventure Racing Academy. It was the last academy that they put on. And I did that for a week and just was like, oh my god. This is it. I've I've found it. I'm in love. Right after that,
Academy, I did my first key 6 and doorkeeping 6, and that was my first 24 hour race and longer. From there, I just you know, I I found people to race with. I I got on the team and never looked back. Well, that is a huge Party stick curve for for going from small to big. Yeah. It was Yeah. I mean, I but I had the you know, I definitely had the endurance. And I think so much of adventure racing is being mental, you know, the mental side of it, and I I I think I've always had that. I think the hardest thing for me in the beginning was was actually learning the disciplines and becoming very competent at the disciplines, you know, paddling and particularly mountain biking. I'd never ridden a mountain bike before I started adventuring. Oh, wow. So that that certainly, you know, took some time
for me to really become a better mountain biker and a better paddler. So that was probably the biggest adjustment for me and the hardest thing for me to learn right away. The endurance part of it training, you know, being on my feet, that was easy. As I can imagine, tennis has a very mentally focused sport. So that Yeah. Did that prepare you for the kind of you know, that that 6 hour, 9 hour, 10 hour mark where you can start having that Absolutely. Yep. I think so. For sure. Okay. Yeah. And then and just a com competing aspect of it, Definitely.
So are you originally from Virginia? I am. Well, I I was born in DC. I actually grew up over fees. Okay. And I spent most of my childhood, all of my childhood overseas, and I moved back to Northern Virginia. Just as I was going into middle school. So I spent middle school and high school in Northern Virginia, and then went off to college at at the University of Texas. And eventually moved back to Northern Virginia for about 10 years until moving down here to Charlottesville back in 2015.
So was that your kind of your impetus for for deciding to start a company here in Virginia? Is this you've kind of planted roots here now, and this is where you're you planted roots? Yeah. We yeah. Absolutely. When we started the organization in 2011, Andy, and I were living up in Northern Virginia. There really wasn't a lot of racing, you know, a lot of adventure races up in that area in the mid Atlantic back then. A little bit different now. There's a lot more races and organizations
popping up, which I think is great. But back then, I I think we kind of felt that there was there was an opportunity to put on races in and around the DC area. So we definitely focused,
you know, on on events in and outside of the Beltway. Now that we're down here in Charlottesville, I think that down the road as we move into next year, I think you'll probably see some more races from us in other parts of Virginia, particularly in Central Virginia, things like that. So Very good. Is that kind of where you're hanging out with Mark Madagu and sharing? Yep. More stories? Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, you know, Mark from the coast, you know, the Virginia Beach, Santa Rosa area where it's more centrally located
in Charlottesville. You know, closer to the mountains, which which we love. I think that it it's such a great state. There's so much great land out there. For for adventure racing, and so we're we're looking forward to hopefully down the road exploring it a little bit more, you know, putting on some some more races down here. That sounds awesome. Because that Yeah. Being a being a customer of venture addicts, I would say that your races
are better produced than others, not to call anybody out, but I find that it seems that the experience is a little more a little more enjoyable. So you guys put on a good product. So so talking about kind of forming that first product when you and Andy were were just getting started. Kinda get into what was when when you guys did your 1st race, kind of how did you get to that point getting that 1st race off and what were your challenges at that time? You know, in the beginning, we we, you know, we really didn't know what we were doing.
Is very normal. You know, you kinda learn. I think that what really helped us is that we were a venturators Okay. And we had done a lot of racing all over the place. And we've seen a little bit of everything. We've done some really, really well done events, and we've done some not So
things that, you know, could have been a little bit better. And I think we we learned a lot. We sort of We were, like, sponges, and we we took a lot in. You know, what how do we do this? How do we not do this? And we really tried to put on events from the from, you know, both perspectives as being racers and race directors. And the Biggest most important thing to us was the overall
experience for the racers. We wanted, you know, we just wanted, and we still do. We we wanna run a very professional event. That was really important to us from the very beginning from, you know, the the registration email that we send out to the last thank you when when the race is over and everything in between. And we wanted we sort of wanted a lot of consistency.
Over and over again at all of our events and sort of wanted to build the brand, so to speak. Okay. And we I and I think we've done that pretty well. You know, we have a a lot of races that I think they they know that we when we put on under that, they're gonna get, you know, a certain race where there's a certain expectation. You know, a lot of it in the beginning was just making very fun events coming across is very genuine and and really, you know, loving what we do and we do and making the race is accessible for everybody. I'm not making them overly too difficult, but at the same time, not too easy and and really doing what we can to sort of grow the sport, particularly from the grassroots level. And that's definitely our our goal right now, probably more so than ever. To get people into the sport and learn about the sport. And then hopefully, 2, 3, 4, 5 years from now, they really get addicted to it. You know, they're doing, you know I don't know. They're doing the world cancer and stuff. So we we really focused on, you know, really thoughtful course design.
Which we still do. You know, we spend a lot of time on course design. It's important to us. You guys build in you guys build in the the the short course with a long course too. They kinda give that introductory level as well as the vice versa. Yep. That's something that we started at the chill this past January.
Okay. And it was it was something we were originally planning to do way back, you know, in the beginning. We just, you know, we just never got around to it. You know, I I I think people really ideally need to enter it, you know, at a very basic level and sort of work their way up. I think it works that way, I think, Hebrew is just get a lot more comfortable with with what's going on, you know, with all the different elements and the navigation. Certainly, people jump in right away and do a 24 hour race is their first event, and there's nothing wrong with that.
But I think the experience, I would say overall,
experience is a lot better if, you know, jump into it. Yeah. I can imagine. I can imagine. Yeah. Yeah. So you're gonna you know, we have the shorter events we're putting on now. Obviously still have the longer ones, and we'll probably put on some even longer events down the road. But we we kinda wanna have a little bit of everything for everybody. Think that's sort of the overall goal, particularly down the road. Do you find that those shorter events are are getting the kind of turnout that you're looking for? Is it is it generating that new racer feel? Yeah. Well, we so this this is coming up. We have the brake to have it in a couple of weeks, and it's our second 3 hour race that we're putting on, and we actually have the same number of teams for the 3 hour that we do for the 8 hour,
which we're actually really excited about. Because it it tells us that there's an interest. You know, majority of the racers that are doing the 3 hour race have never done a race before. That's fantastic. You know, they don't they don't know what's going on. I think all they know is, hopefully, they're not gonna have a good time. And we saw the same thing with chill. And we have registered in the chill that are now doing the break to have it. And that's that's really what we're going for. So you're starting to see a repeat customer? I I hope so. You know? Absolutely. I mean, obviously, we have our our core group of racers, you know, that do a lot of our events and all of our events and
we love them, and they're they're awesome. And so, hopefully, we can continue to, you know, grow and and just reach out and touch more people. So That's fantastic. So what's a what's a good turnout then for for 1 of your races? What's a what's a kind of Yep. People wise? So Yeah. So we have a goal for every event for an adventure race. We have a goal of a 100 racers. That that's sort of the magic number for us. Okay. If we have a 100 races or more, we essentially that event is you know,
for really, it it's worth our time to put on. And we, in turn, we we will actually make money on the race, and anything over a hundred races is just, you know, icing on the cake. And we've we've been really fortunate to have hit that number for every event. That was the number that we kind of figured out really early on. You know, I'd say about the 3rd work race that we put on, we sort of do, okay. You know, when you break it all down, this is the number that we need, you know, to be able to cover our expenses and then, you know, have have money left over. And and at this point, right now actually pay ourselves. So 100 is is the magic number. Anything more? 130, 140, 150, 200 erasers, which we've actually had. The past, that's just I mean, that's amazing for an adventure rate. That is amazing. Yeah. And, yeah, it's it's fantastic. So I think that I think that's a good goal, you know, for for people to have. It's really tough to put on an adventure and and have the outcome you want. When you only have 40 people show up. You only have 50 people show up. It's tough, you know, you
know, you there's a lot of expensive with adventure racing that you don't have with mountain bike racing and trail running. Right. We really gotta think about that stuff, you know, maps and boats and, you know, and all these other things. And so I think it's really important to, you know, from the very beginning, you know, have your formula, you know, know your fixed expenses,
and and just kinda go from there. That is awesome. So do do you feel that the that you've had some growth then? Is this kind of been your impetus for for figuring out, okay, we need to add another race or are you guys just incrementally growing it as it's very careful? Is it what's kind of your thinking on growing your business? Yeah. So we, you know, we're really fortunate in that this is in our full time job. And if you don't,
we I actually say that. You know, obviously, I'd love to I I'd love to put on races for a living, you know, and Right. And be able to fit be able to pay the bills and pay the mortgage. But I I don't think, you know, with this venture racing, it difficult. And I don't think we would actually want to put events on, you know, as our primary job. I think we like the fact that it's a part time job, so to speak, and a hobby, and know, we just happen to, you know, make a little bit of money doing it. And we we definitely wanna grow it though and keep growing it. And I think as long as we enjoy it and we're having fun with it, we're gonna grow it and we're gonna add more events. Essentially, you know, we're gonna put on as many races as we feel comfortable
doing and that, you know, go along with the other things that we have going on in our lives. Is that kind of your guiding principle then? Is the is the fun factor has to be there before you guys are really gonna stay with us. Okay? Absolutely. We I mean, we plan out our year. Liz and I, who is sort of 50% of the other part of the organization,
it's it's easy for us. We she's actually we actually got married back in January. Yes. Congratulations, by the way. And oh, yeah. Thank you. So, you know, we have our priorities and the things that are important first. And then, you know, depending on our schedules and and the things that we wanna do throughout the year, that's actually how we plan their races
Okay. With, you know, the dates and the number of races that we're gonna put on and where and when and things like that. Talking a little bit about that to the planning. So it sounds like you sit down with your your life plan of what you need to do Yeah. Your family. Yeah. And then try to work their race in there. So kinda walk us through that. What's what's kinda the way you approach figuring out your schedule for the year? Yeah. So we I think what we did for this year, which is the 1st full year that we've been working together and brought the organization back. Just kinda sat down and said, okay. You know, month by month. We have these, you know, existing races that we already have that we wanna bring back. Okay. And so we gotta we know that we wanna do those events. We gotta find, you know, the the right time for those throughout the year.
And then how many new events do we wanna create and work on? And so we kind of figure out that number. And then, you know, depending on the the things going on in our lives and work and you know, vacations and travel and all sorts of things to kind of plug stuff in. There's I think there's 2 really, really important seasons for adventure racing. Okay. So to speak, the spring and the fall, we try to have most of our races in spring in the fall. Obviously, we have a winter race, and that's a little bit of an exception with the chill that we have in January. Chill, which is appropriately named event.
Very cold Virginia January. Yes. Exactly. We leave I I think we leave the summer wide open. We always have, and I think we will continue to do that for a variety of reasons that the weather, the heat, and a lot of people are on vacation over the course of the summer. Okay. I think that, generally, the numbers for races, I think, fall in the summer, we have. We we try to stay away from graduation weekends. Okay. Please believe it or not in in June May, and you'd be surprised
you know, the number of people that, you know, obviously, people have children and families. There's a lot of weekends in those months that we find, and we have found from the past that people are unavailable. So these are all things you just kinda learn. You know? The more the more you put on races year after year, just kinda say, oh, god. That's not a good weekend in general. Gonna build it in your strategy. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. Exactly. You know, big holiday weekends. Really, I think not not a good time to put on races. Really? You know? Yeah. I think adventure races in particular. You know you know, I think it's, you know, you got Memorial Day and 4th July and then the Labor Day. You think it's a big 30 over the summer. You should have found that,
you know, people are on vacation. People are with their families. You almost have, like, a Not a lot of your racers, but a lot of your racers. You almost have, like, this teacher's point of view then if it was where you're looking. Schools in session, the venturacings in session. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I've never put a thought of it.
But but I yeah. I mean, I think it definitely depends on, you know, your demographic and who your races are. You know, obviously, that doesn't apply to everybody. You know, not everybody has children. And
but I think that, you know, we yeah, I mean, we've just we've found that over the years and just some of the feedback that we've gotten from some of our racers, you know, Easter weekend. You know, all of this this type of Right. Type of holidays and things like that. There's plenty of other weekends throughout the year, I think, to to put on races. And then I think you have the last big thing that we look at is other race calendars. Okay. You know, what's going on with other
other events out there? Other organizations, and we really try to do our best to stay away from the same weekends as other other companies.
I just think it's the right thing to do. It's the friendly thing to do. So are you talking about adventure racing companies in general, or are you talking about mountain bike racing trial or the whole gambit? Yeah. Now primarily the adventure is there's Okay. So do you find a community feel then about that some of these adventures and companies where you're not really competitors or more got this loose knit community?
I think so. Yeah. I think so. You know, that's definitely the sense I I get it. It is such a great community. You know, we all we all talk to each other. You know, there's so many organizations here that have spreaded up in the last couple of years, you know, rootstock racing
and, you know, obviously, with goals. He's been around in Naira, and then Mark and the soggy bottom boys. I mean, you know, American Adventure Sports And Doug. Know, so we definitely do, I think, chat with each other as much as we can and and and work out events and and make sure we don't, you know, no one's stepping on anybody's toes. Because a lot of these race directors, you know, we like to race as well. Right? Right. And so, you know, if there's a a great race, you know, that someone else is putting on, Maybe that's you know, we wanna do it as well. And so, oh, okay. If it works for us, we'll just you know, maybe we'll do this event on a different day. Doesn't always happen, and it doesn't always work out that way. But I think that I think a lot of us were I think we're you know, we definitely look at that. But I think that's a good thing.
Overhauled. So do you find that that eventual racing tends to become territorial in a sense of you guys carve out different chunks
of a certain area, and that's where you race at? Yeah. I I think it really depends on the type of races you're putting on Okay. In the lane. You know, I there's a lot of in this region and, you know, a little north of us in PA, Pennsylvania, New York. There's a lot of shorter events. You know, 3 hours, 6 hour, 8 hour, 10 hour races, sprint races, so to speak. And I think those events have definitely
territorial. So definitely, obviously, pull from the mid the mid Atlantic, but we do pull from Pennsylvania as well. And we also have just started pulling from North Carolina.
We've seen a a lot of racers coming up from North Carolina to our events. And I don't you know, there's really not much going on down there. You know, we definitely see that with with the shorter of us. I think the bigger races and, obviously, we've yet to put on a a big, you know, I would say, 24 hour plus race. I think when you get into those bigger races, you're you're gonna see people coming in from further away, obviously,
being, you know, willing to travel farther to do another batch. So the more bang for your buck type concept, or is it just does it take a different type of athlete to race those? I think it's I think it's a little bit of both, but I think that the the longer races, they're it's a different type than our athletes Okay. You know, to more experienced races. They're looking much more committed to racing, more committed to sport. It's a hobby, but a really big hobby. They turned it into kind of a recreational
vacation. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Exactly. My rule for racing and how far I will travel is the race has to be the race can't be shorter than the distance it takes to get there or the time it takes to get there. It's a pretty good rule of thumb. Yeah. You know what it's you know what I mean? Exactly.
Or or half. So it's if it's a 12 hour race, you know, it it can't take me 10 hours to get there. So no little races outside the country. Yeah. Yeah. You know, obviously and then, you know, and those are really for the shorter events. Obviously, the bigger races, the multi day races, the expedition races, you know, I quite frankly, I'll go anywhere for those. Those numbers and those amount are you know, there's not a lot of those ratios out there that are really trouble very far. So when you're looking to set up an adventure race, when you're looking at a piece of property or a park or or in adventure racing, we tends to go into sometimes even private land. How do you pick your venue? What's kind of the things you're looking for to to say, that's a good place for Venture Race where that's not a good place for Venture Race. That's a really good question. And 99%
of the time end up putting on a race somewhere because I just think it's a really, really cool place. It would be a great place to put on a race. You know, we we we do a lot of mountain biking, a lot of trail running. We travel. You know, we we check out park. You know, I I love looking at maps, you know, like a hobby, I guess, you could say. Do you do what I do when you go to another park and thinking about, oh, that trail. Oh, yeah.
Reconescent hats always on. You know, I'll I'll take you know, I'll get on, you know, Google Earth. Just zoom in. You know Uh-huh. And, you know, bring up all the Virginia State Parks. And I'll be like, I've never heard of that 1. That 1 looks interesting. And I'll you know, we'll take a road trip and they'll check it out and, you know, spend the night and, you know, and by the end of the the end of that day, you know, we can we generally look at each other and be like, okay. This is awesome. We gotta put on a race here. And that's really kinda how it works for us, you know, at that point once, you know, we look at more maps, so we usually come back home. Get back on Google Earth, look at the surrounding area, you know, private property,
Parkland, you know, forest, all that good stuff. And then from there, it's just about getting in touch, you know, with with whoever you need to to talk to. It's the Virginia State Park System, you know, Montgomery County. Park system figuring out, you know, what's private land, what's not private land, and that's sort of the beginning of it how of how it works, at least for us. Okay.
I can't, you know, I don't I can't speak for really a lot of other people, but I assume it's the same. So how far out do you start thinking about permits? About when you need to actually start having paperwork in place? Yep. So we found that it really depends on the organization that you're dealing with. Probably about 6 months. Okay. 6 months out. And a lot of it comes down to how early we want to actually announce the event. And and worked on the the calendar for the year. So,
you know, a lot of the paperwork, it's definitely done about expense out. Sometimes it could be, you know, much closer to the event. It it really depends on who we're dealing with and and how many times we've We've worked with that organization before. An example is the Virginia State Park System. We've done numerous races with them now. They know us. And, you know, I know that I know the process. I know the people. Okay. And it's easy for me to fill out the permit, send it in, and I have an idea of, you know, how long it's gonna take for them to get back to us, etcetera. Did you find that building that relationship with those kind of individuals?
Is better. Do you know them by name, or is it kinda just do you just know them by reputation? You know, usually, it's the park managers, you know, the park managers, people in the office. In the the park service offices that, you know, you really get to know. But if it's a brand new venue Okay. You know, 1 that we've never done an event app before.
We definitely approach them even further out. Maybe even as early as 9 months out. You know, send in the permit. And usually, I'll always, you know, find somebody to email or somebody to call and eventually get in touch with you know, the the person that makes the decisions. And, generally, 99% of the time, I I schedule a meeting. You know, we end up meeting with the park in the organization.
Even before the permit is actually approved. Do you find that they know what a venture racing is? Or do you have to No. Kinda yeah. So you have to walk them through it. Never. Never. Okay. Like kind of, you know, very rarely. You wanna do what? That was fun. It's Exactly.
I kinda have a process for, you know, what we talk about when we sit down with them Okay. And and go over. I, you know, I we always bring old maps of old races and, you know, just kind of explain, you know, this is what we wanna do on your land and and these are the facilities and the things that we need to make this happen. And we really try to make sure that the organization and the part knows that on their end, there's very little work involved.
Okay. They really don't need to do much for most of our events. We take care of it all. You know, we're a 100% self sufficient,
and they they love that. You know, when they hear that, they're like, oh, you mean you don't need you know, you don't need staff on race day. You know, we got you just you know what I mean? Or you don't need crossing guards, or you don't need, you know, aid stations out on the race quarter. And, you know, we're just gonna say no. We got it all. It's it's pretty it's pretty straightforward. So once they hear that and they hear how little work there is on their part,
we found that everybody in fact, every organization in parks that we've approached has, at the end of the day, has, you know, has approved the permits that we've we've sent in. So I I I don't know if that's just luck on our part or or just dealing with with the right people and the right know, the right organizations. Okay. So now now we'll we'll change gears again. I Yeah. I did a little research, and I think that the Buff Betty might be the only women, only venture race in the United States.
I don't know if that's true or not. I I Sisack from a venture racing hub. And he said, yeah. I think you might be right. I found 1 in Australia. Called the women the only adventure race, but that's Australia. Yeah. United States. I think it's Buff Betty. So kinda talk about a little bit how Buff Betty came about and and what your response was for women only event erasing. Yeah. We loved the bust study. It's a
a race near and dear to our hearts. So the bus study is an interesting story. I actually did 1 of the original bus studies. It was actually 1 of the first races I ever did back in believe it was it was 2009, and it was a series of events that a guy by the name of Brad Hunt put on. Okay. He owned an organization in the company years ago, backsliding in the odyssey days. And he put on about 4 or 5 plus studies a year all over the country.
And it was a it was a big a big race. They got all big numbers. You know, the the event did very well. And I did 1 of these races with my sister, and maybe it was the 3rd 4th race I had ever done. And you know, fast forward a couple years. He decides to no longer put on events. We love the concept. Andy was familiar with it when we started the organization.
Okay. And we just kinda sat down. And I think it just happened 1 evening over our conversation. I said, you know, Andy, there's this race called the box baby. He's like, yeah. You know, you did it once, and I I I seen it floating around. And I said, I wonder I wonder if if Brad would let us take it over.
And, you know, put on the events, it it would be perfect for us, you know, trying to go to the sport and get more people into it. And so that's what we did. We contacted him, and you know, next thing we knew, we we had the race and everything associated with it, and we put our first buffered on in 2013. So it is special. You know, it's a woman's only event. Just thinking very unique. Sort of kicks the the male, you know.
Yeah. I mean, accentuation in general is a very male dominated sport. A lot of dudes. And I think it it makes the races than the racing much longer it's less intimidating. Okay. You know, as well as racers and it's definitely event an event that we will have every year. We wanna try and grow it. We just announced actually today that we're gonna be bringing it back on September 9th Fantastic. 4th the 4th edition of it. So in in in the 3 runnings with the 4th 1 coming up, have you seen
growth. Do you see these people come back? Do you see them racing other races of yours? Oh, yeah. That's yes. We we do for sure. But we definitely get those racers to get you know, this is their 1 event of the year that they do in that jet. You know, we definitely see a handful of those. Okay. They just truly look forward to it. It's it's a a great day to spend outside with your girlfriends.
You know? Girls just wanna have fun out in the woods. You know, leave leave the kids and the husband at home and have a day to yourself. You know? We definitely see a lot of those racers. That come out year after year. So it's it's great, and we're excited about it coming up in the fall
and and moving forward. Fantastic. Thank you very much for for joining The Mercers of a podcast I kinda talked about. I think I think we might have to have you back. There's a lot of a lot of depth in some of your topics that that maybe will do that in the future. I love I love talking about inventories. Fantastic. Kind of so so just we'd love to have you talk about it all day. I think
so I've I've I've even learned some stuff, and I've been doing been to racing for, you know, surface over the years. Everything I talked to to you or to Mark or to Jim, I always find something new, which is like, this is what I love is there's always some little tricks. Like, oh, did you know about this? Like, no. I didn't. So you have a race coming up in April. This is the break the habit, and this is the very first Yeah. I did this race 4 years ago, and that was the very first time team ever came together was during 1 of those races where we'd never raced together and we beat the beat the heck out of ourselves. And it was It was it was 1 of those days where everything cramps up. And, man, that was was a lot of fun. So, hopefully, get back to that. So April 1st so registration closes, what, in a week? Registration closes on March 26th
Yes. Midnight. We got a great great bunch of keys. We have about over 50 teams. We already shared about a 100 20, 130 people. Yeah. So it's it's looking it's looking great, and you still got time to time to register. We we love this series. We love Park. It's got a huge lake. It's got an incredible trail system, particularly if you like mountain biking. Just some fantastic trails at Montgomery County maintains and and is built. And,
obviously, we have the 3 hour race. Very beginner friendly, a little puddling, a little trucking, a little hiking, very simple navigation,
mapping compass, and then the 8 hour much longer and more advanced will feature a lot amount biking and a and a lot of pedaling. Because that was the first race where we ever discovered someone could could porridge a canoe over another part of the land and get back in the water. We didn't know we could ever do that. That was I think Shane Higerman was the 1 who taught us that. Like, where are you guys your canoes? Like, never you mind.
So I remember that. Yeah. We're like, we didn't know we could do that. Like, reported Yeah. Let's learn always learn every every venture race you would learn something new. It's like, I didn't know I could take my boat over there. It's like, well, no 1 says you can't.
It's like, you know Yep. Advantage. Yeah. But it's a fun time. We provide all the boats and titling equipment as well, so you don't have to you don't have bring your own boats out. Fantastic. Yep. Alright. Well, thanks for being on, and we'll talk to you really soon. Yeah. Thank you. And there you go. That was Michelle Fushe from Adventure Addix Racing. Find your races, especially the 1 coming up, atadventureadxracing.com. And now you know.
In our next episode of the Merchant Center podcast, I'm gonna get into the strategies you can use to improve your race registration numbers. A little practice and some discipline, I can show you how to not suffer the woes of poor registration turnout. All that and more on the next merchandiser podcast.
Thank you so much for listening to the Merchant Center podcast. I'd love to hear from you, so please reach out to me on Twitter at Merchant Center. You have a question or like to hear about a certain kind of topic or maybe there is something that's bothering you, some kind of problem you're having in race promotion.
Might be able to help you. So reach out to me at merchandisingdirk or go to my website at merchandisingdirk.com and leave me a comment, send me an email, And tell me what you're thinking, tell me what you wanna hear, and we'll we'll definitely put that into a future show. Also, if you like the new format, if you like me interviewing race promoters, I definitely like to hear from you too. Go to iTunes, leave a review,
and let me know what you think of the of the format. I'm kind of experimenting with some with some new things. So interviews here, definitely the educational material, that that I put on the podcast on a normal basis, kind of culminating into some some transitions in Merchant for Podcast. To get you better prepared to build better races. Meanwhile, I hope you take what Michelle Fuciay taught us today about a venture race and use that information to build real better races.