The Dark Zone: An Adventure Racing Podcast

05/30/2026

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend around the world. Great to see another AR season in action.

Team Dark Zone Podcast/NYARA is giving the Tug Hill Extreme Adventure a go in beautiful New York State.

Tracking Link:

2026 Tug Hill Extreme Adventure - Live Event Tracking

05/29/2026

Just in time for your weekend race and training travels:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dark-zone-an-adventure-racing-podcast/id1578529221?i=1000770180530

Adam Rose joins The Dark Zone for a full debrief on the 2025 Bimbache adventure race in Morocco. Racing with Team Beacon, Adam has a lot to say about five days in the Atlas Mountains — the terrain, the race design, the decisions that cost them, and the moments that made it worth every dirham.

Race director Antonio de la Rosa leaves his signature on everything he touches. Bimbache was no different. Adam unpacks what that means for teams on the ground, what the AR community should know before they sign up, and why this race is already being discussed in the same breath as a world championship.

Adam and Brian dig into the gap between what a stage looks like on paper and what it demands in practice — and what happens to a team’s decision-making when sleep debt starts compounding across multiple days. Spoiler: it doesn’t go well. It makes for great podcast listening, though.

Also in the conversation: the tension between giving racers information and preserving the uncertainty that makes expedition racing what it is, European teams making smart sleep decisions before the 24-hour mark, and why some of the best moments in Morocco didn’t always happen during the racing.

Adam sacrificed to race Bimbache, and he has zero regrets. That tells you everything you need to know about what kind of episode this is, who he is, and why he loves adventure racing so much.

Podcast Episode · The Dark Zone: An Adventure Racing Podcast · May 29 · 1h 4m

05/28/2026

Link in Bio

TDZ is a proud sponsor of Ascend Athletics’ Hike For Her. This global day of action to be held on May 30, 2026 brings people together from around the world to support women and girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

No need to find a local chapter as anyone can sign up as an individual hiker (and hike as much or as little as you want) to support Ascend.

TDZ has always been, and will always remain, free to the listeners. Supporting Ascend is a great way to give back to the podcast.

Again, link in bio.

05/27/2026

New Episode (on the way) Alert - Wrapping up Adam Rose’s accounting of his race at Bimbache. We’ve held this one for awhile and look forward to dropping it later this week (and just in time for your drive back and forth to this weekend’s races).

Follow The Dark Zone: An Adventure Racing Podcast on your streaming platform of choice, and see our entire catalogue at www.ardarkzone.com

As always, you keep racing and we’ll keep talking.

For the times you can't be out there

05/25/2026

Always great to see Huairasinchi pop up on the feed. Great races, gorgeous landscape, and top notch organization.

05/23/2026

TDZ loves our connection to NYARA as Team Dark Zone Podcast/NYARA, and we always look forward to TLD.

Great race in a gorgeous spot.

Good luck to all!

05/23/2026

A listener recently reached out asking for episodes that focus on teamwork. As most, if not all, of our episodes include teamwork in one way or another it was a tough task, but here is what we sent back:

Five TDZ Episodes on Teamwork:

Ep. 50 – Nathan Fa'avae (The GOAT)

Ep. 96 – Dr. Michelle Barton & Dr. Kathleen Sutcliffe (An absolute must listen)

Ep. 31 (Flash) – Team Peak Pursuit at Expedition Oregon (Fresh off the race course)

Ep. 121 – Dave Jackson of CaveSim (Great cross-reference with AR)

Ep. 146 - La Ruta Madre episode with Una, Joel, and Zach (Strong team bonds)

Here is a link to all our episodes via Apple Podcasts -

Sports Podcast · Updated Semiweekly · The Dark Zone: An Adventure Racing Podcast welcomes you to our world. Come hear from racers, race directors, fans of AR, and everyone in between. The podcast's out there, you pick it up, it's yours,…

05/21/2026

Link in Bio

Returning guest Marina LeGree, Executive Director of Ascend Athletics, is always a delight to have on The Dark Zone. In this episode, we discuss her introduction to adventure racing, the parallels between Ascend and AR, and how her family is again returning to The Maine Summer Adventure Race.

LeGree founded Ascend Athletics in Afghanistan in 2015 — taking girls into the mountains to teach navigation skills, rope work, and what it feels like to be part of a team. The Taliban shut that down in 2021. Ascend pivoted to Pakistan, and helped to resettle 134 Afghan alumni across three continents. The work of Ascend, in the face of incredible challenges, didn’t stop. Marina and her team kept moving forward.

It is easy to see the strong connection between Ascend and AR culture. There is always difficult terrain to traverse, the need for good navigation, and genuine teamwork. The Afghan alumni who made it out of Kabul in 2021 are now leading Ascend’s Hike for Her events in Dublin, North Carolina, and around the world. One of them just volunteered to take the Ascend model to Africa. And some have dipped their toes into the AR waters.

This is a conversation about adaptation when situations change rapidly, about building teams across impossible cultural distances, and why good work matters in an evolving world. Thank you to Marina for coming on the show!