Racing into adventures

• By GEORGE MORRIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 1, 2009

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For several years, Gerrad Delatte’s goal has been to get on the TV reality show "Survivor." To do so, he realized he’d have to get off the couch.

The show hasn’t called, but reality hasn’t been boring.

In 2006, Delatte began competing in adventure races, in which participants navigate their way through all manner of terrain. This was strategic: "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett is involved in adventure racing, and Delatte hoped that would help him get on the show.

Instead, it got him hooked on the sport in a big way.

This summer, Delatte, 41, competed in Primal Quest Badlands 2009, a nine-day, 600-mile trek through western South Dakota. His team completed the race, and in Primal Quest, that’s an accomplishment.

Starting on Aug. 14, Primal Quest began with a marathon and included segments in which competitors swam, paddled, cycled and climbed, using map-reading skills to find their way to checkpoints. Exhaustion was so intense that it had some of them hallucinating.

Which begs a question: Why?

"Competition is one (reason), but also figuring out what can I really do," Delatte said. "What are my limits? I have not come across a race I couldn’t do or couldn’t finish, and I am just an average Joe.

"If you would have told me this 10 years ago, I probably would have said, ‘These people are crazy. Why would somebody want to do that?’ "

Delatte wasn’t the only one asking that question. After starting with considerably less strenuous, five-hour Gulf Coast Adventure Racing events, he joined Scott Hayes of Baton Rouge in a 30-hour race in Florida. At that point, Delatte’s wife, Kim, chimed in.

"She said, ‘Gerrad, you’ve just gone off the deep end,’" he said. "I said, ‘You know what, honey? That’s a great name for a team.’ So I named our team that: Off the Deep End.

"Every race I would present, she would say, ‘You can’t do that.’ I’d say, ‘Yeah, you’re probably right, but I’m going to try.’ Once you set your mind to try to do something, you can do it. … Ordinary people like me can do these races. You just start small, build yourself up."

The building process involves more than stamina. Delatte attended a weeklong course in West Virginia that taught such skills as whitewater paddling, navigation, nutrition and caring for the body during a race. He went to Moab, Utah, to learn rope climbing and rappelling.