UNPREDICTABLE ADVENTURE

Adventure racing can be dirty business. Mike Ginley discovered that in July, when he found himself crawling through a vat of mud during a race in Hartford, Conn.

“You couldn’t really care about getting dirty,” said the Agoura Hills businessman. “You just had to dive in and go for it.”

Ginley’s zest for the fledging sport is shared by a growing legion of weekend athletes who feel adventure racing’s combination of trail running, mountain biking and kayaking--along with impromptu “mystery tests” such as the mud crawl--make it an attractive alternative to road running and triathlons.

“I definitely think it’s going to be the wave of the future,” said Larry Niday of West Hills. “Triathlons were a big deal for so long, I really think there is going to be a shift.”

In only its second year, the Hi-Tec Adventure Race Series is enjoying overwhelming success entering the national championship Sunday at Castaic Lake State Recreation Area. More than 200 three-person teams--a sellout--have signed up for the event, scheduled to start at 8 a.m.

The Hi-Tec series is considered “sprint” adventure racing and was patterned after longer multi-sport endurance events such as the Raid Gauloises, which lasts more than a week.

It will be the first adventure race of any kind for Niday, champion of this year’s California Mountain Bike Challenge series. But he says it probably won’t be his last.

“It looks like an exciting event,” Niday said. “I like the team concept, where you have to finish each event together and urge each other on.”

Niday’s three-person coed team--there are also men’s, women’s and corporate divisions--includes girlfriend Peggy Mahoney and Doug Reeves of Van Nuys. They’re named “It’s All About Ziggy” for Niday’s and Mahoney’s mixed-breed dog.

Niday, 30, plans to use adventure races for off-season mountain bike training, as well as for improving his running and elementary kayaking skills.

“We haven’t trained for kayaks, so it will probably be our weakest event,” he said. “But I’m not worried about it. We’ll be strong in the other two events.”

Adventure racing has proved a perfect fit for Ginley, 35, whose experience in distance running, cycling and kayaking prompted him and wife Kristen to go to Hartford for the first of this year’s four Hi-Tec series races on July 13.

The Ginleys were able to add a third partner, a Connecticut man, the day before the event and finished 36th out of 82 coed teams. The couple will team up with friend Mike Minchin on Sunday.

One of Ginley’s most vivid memories from Hartford was crawling across a 40-foot vat of foul-smelling river mud that awaited competitors after the mountain biking stage and before kayaking. Competitors were forced to crawl to avoid ropes suspended inches above the mud.

“Everyone emerged totally covered in mud; it was great,” Ginley said. “Everybody took the opportunity to jump in the river and rinse off a little bit before the kayaking.”

For some, part of the attraction of adventure racing is its unpredictability. The distance of the three events fluctuates from race to race, and the “mystery tests” cooked up by organizers sometimes resemble practical jokes.

The Marine Corps designed the five surprise tests at the Sept. 14 race in Miami, including a 12-foot wall that every competitor had to scale at the end of the trail run, the last event. It was dubbed the “wall from hell.” Earlier in the race, Marines armed with machine guns ordered each competitor to perform 20 push-ups.

At the Oct. 5 race in Pittsburgh, competitors had to negotiate a Tyrolian Traverse, pulling themselves across a 50-foot canal by a rope suspended over the water.

When competitors at Hartford got to their bikes to begin the race, they found that one tire had been deflated by devious organizers.

Competitors are responsible for bringing all of their own equipment and cannot be assisted by nonparticipants.

“They’re something new and exciting,” Ginley said of the mystery tests. “The thought of having a test pop up anywhere in the event that you can overcome in five minutes or less really is an appealing part of adventure racing.”

The condensed, or sprint, version of the sport was the brainchild of Michael Epstein Sports Productions in Agoura. Intrigued by the Raid Gauloises, Epstein worked with a team of associates to develop an event that incorporates the schematics of longer adventure races but can be completed in hours rather than days.

“We borrowed the concepts and presented them in a format that is doable and attainable,” Epstein said.

Sunday’s event--as with all Hi-Tec series races--will consist of a trail run between five and eight miles, a mountain bike race between 10 and 15 miles, a one-hour kayaking race and several mystery tests, which have increasingly become a more integral part of the competition.

Teams must finish each stage together, a condition that has produced some touching moments.

After taking several falls on her bike in the Hartford race, Rosemary Zinter of Danbury, Conn., was unable to complete the trail run and was carried more than two miles by teammates Chris Rozdilsky and Joe Kubisek to the finish line.

Epstein says the event’s emphasis on teamwork and overcoming obstacles has contributed to its rapid growth. Last year’s race at Castaic Lake drew 45 teams, roughly one-fourth of the number expected to compete Sunday. All of this year’s races have sold out months in advance, leading to plans to increase the number of races next year.

“I see it as a day of developing camaraderie with friends,” Epstein said. “There’s something between the teamwork and the combination of events and the mystery events that kind of levels the playing field.

“You would think something like this would intimidate people, but just the opposite is true. Everybody is just having a good time.”

Even in the mud.