Mongol Derby : Endurance Racing :: Spartan Death Race : Jogging

I’ve recently become consumed with pondering analogical thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. I’ve been reading the book Range, by David Epstein, who argues that generalists not only do well, but are necessary and often more successful or innovative  in the world of specialists we’ve created.  He has many examples of how analogical thinking has been useful to solve big problems. I’ve started noticing situations in which I, personally, use this type of thinking. In my job, we often think of industries that have similarities and look at how they’ve served the customer or solved a certain customer problem. In training for the derby, I am also having to use a lot of this type of thinking - especially when it comes to gear. 

I have also noticed how often I use analogies in everyday life. When I’m trying to understand a concept, I often think of a concept that I do understand and see if it relates. When I am trying to explain my sport of eventing to someone, I often bring up more well known sports - “dressage is like figure skating on a horse - you have a pattern you’re asked to do, and then rated from 1-10 on each movement - and it’s supposed to look effortless if you’re doing it right” is how I describe the first phase. The other day I was trying to understand what a friend does at work connecting different networks, and asked if she was basically solving the problem of different track gauges before the standardization across railroad lines. Different train cars can’t ride on different gauges of track, so people and things would have to be transferred to a different train on the other track with the different gauge. With standardization of track gauges, trains could continue along to a different railway system. While this is definitely not exactly what she’s working on, it was enough of a similarity for her to nod and the conversation moved on. Later, I realized that I had used a very strange analogy to try to understand a concept that was foreign to me - thereby solving the problem of understanding. 

The sport of endurance riding has been around for ages. My sport of eventing comes from the military’s use of horses (dressage = parade ground, cross country = galloping across the countryside to deliver a message or get into battle, showjumping = the ability to recover after cross country and still perform with finesse when tired). Endurance riding has ancient roots from when humans relied on horses to get around.  As a modern day sport it has 50 milers that most horses can apparently do with training and conditioning, 100 milers that horses and people can finish but are still quite an accomplishment, and big north star 100 milers that are spoken of reverently. The gear and equipment for each of these sports - both their genesis and their current modern day sport are different throughout time, and from each other. On top of that, the Mongol Derby is a strange beast in and of itself. Mongol Derby : Endurance Racing :: Spartan Death Race : Jogging. While I usually would try to take my knowledge from eventing and apply it to training for this horse race, I need to expand my thinking. 

In finding gear for this race, I first went to my friend’s parent’s store up in Killington, VT (Base Camp Outfitters). They specialize in outdoor activities and know everything there is to know about different membranes and how they hold up for all sorts of outdoor adventuring - from backpacking, to skinning, to heliskiing, to trail running, to fly fishing.  They can expound upon the differences in materials and conditions and have used all of the stuff they have in the store, so they stand by their recommendations. They outfitted me for my trip backpacking through Patagonia and I survived that with flying colors. They also do some riding out west when they go to the ranch they visit in the summer. However, what none of us have done is gallop for 14 hours across the steppe in all weather...so while they outfitted me well at the outset, there were still gaps in some of my gear. 

For instance: A normal raincoat you would use for backpacking just doesn’t seem to cut it. I have a pack-rated raincoat that breathes but also kept me dry for an all day hail storm in Patagonia that within 20 minutes of riding in the rain was soaked through. Perhaps it is the speed at which you hit the rain (or the rain hits you)? Or that you’re getting more wet because you’re moving more quickly through the drops? Or the rain kicked up from the horse? But I was soaked. And cold. Next I tried a raincoat that didn’t breathe and it worked great, but I got soaked underneath anyways because my pants were soaked. I’ve done plenty of hiking in the rain, and never once got wet enough on my pants to have it soak up my underlayers and make me wet from the inside out. When you’re hiking, your pack and your raincoat generally cover you enough that the water will drip off, and if you do get wet, you’re generating enough body heat that it probably dries as you get more wet, and doesn’t creep up as much. When you’re riding, you are expending calories, but you’re moving quickly through the weather and you’re completely exposed. Whatever heat you generate is quickly pulled off of you by the air flowing past you.I also never thought about how wet the saddle itself gets as well. So even if you somehow kept your legs dry, you’d be sitting on a wet saddle all day as the water dripped off your coat onto the saddle below. This opens a whole host of other unpleasant issues besides just being soaked and cold...

I took a step back from the raingear testing to think about other sports that have similar conditions but may look completely different. I happened upon sailing. I have been sailing for a long time, and over the summer last year started racing with my dad in a Star Class sailboat at our lakehouse. While we usually decided not to go out in foul weather since we were relative novices in that boat, plenty of people sail in all sorts of weather. And when you’re sailing, you’re mobile and expending calories, but not going anywhere under your own steam, similar to riding. Could sailing gear be helpful? I think it would be ideal if I had the ability to change my clothing - but on these Mongolian horses, whatever you’re wearing when you get on is what you will be wearing when you come off - either voluntarily or involuntarily. My dinghy shirt that doesn’t breathe at all might keep me dry and warm, but might also completely dehydrate me in a 70 degree rainstorm. Is there another sport? Or a hybrid? Or should I just decide I’m going to get wet and maybe pack some extra trashbags to wear for when my raincoat fails? 

My angst about gear aside, I must admit I have fun thinking about the similarities and differences in different sports. There is no activity quite like the Mongol Derby, and one person’s experience and tried and true gear may just not work for another person. Or one years’ race may be completely and utterly different from another year in terms of weather, or horses, or what-have-you. I’ve had to do (and still have to do!) many thought exercises around what to try, what to try next, and what problems I haven’t thought of yet that I might encounter. I put together a small example of what I’m talking about here with backpacking, climbing, sailing, and cycling. The list obviously goes on and on. 

Here I am rambling on about gear when I meant to talk more generally about analogical thinking. I suppose I’ll save further thoughts on that for a future blog - this one is long enough as it is. Please do let me know if you think of a sport/gear that may be helpful to me!