Hunter Gatherer Survival Race, 50K & 100K Ultramarathons

Having personally run race director, Josue Stephens’ Fuego Y Agua 100K race on Isle de Ometepe, Nicaragua, three years in a row, I knew he was on to something. Last year, he launched the inaugural Survival Run:Nicaragua along with the 25K, 50K and 100K trail races, and the event brought participants from all over the country, ready to test their obstacle racing skills in a real jungle environment, with real-world, not man-made, obstacles.

Building on that concept, Stephens has launched the Hunter Gatherer 50k & 100k Ultras & Survival Runs series, to take place in the USA. The official press release is below:

Survival Run: Hunter Gatherer and Hunter Gatherer Ultramarathons
The new Survival Run series goes beyond ultra, obstacle and adventure racing

August 30, 2013

Austin, TX — This October the 5th, a new kind of obstacle course race will be coming to Texas. Taking place in the treacherous and unforgiving terrain of west Texas, the Survival Run: Hunter Gatherer will integrate primitive survival skills into the 50k and 100k distance races. Competitors
will have to prove proficient in bow drill fire making, creating and shooting a bow and arrow, finding and filtering water, and even fashioning their own sandals which they will have to run the race in.

The objective of the Survival Run: Hunter Gatherer is to take the participants out of their comfort zone and into the unknown by challenging them to use and master primitive skills that the peoples indigenous to the region had to use on a daily basis. Entry to the Survival Run is by application only.

The Hunter Gatherer event will also include self supported 50k and 100k run only (no obstacles) ultra distance races. Participants in the run only ultras will be facing the same challenging terrain as the Survival Run competitors, and will still have to find and filter their own water.

In keeping with the direction and theme of the Survival Run: Hunter Gatherer, all sponsors of the event are ones whose product lines are focused on promoting the health benefits of a traditional or primitive lifestyle.

San Antonio based survival skills training center and herbalism school, The Human Path, along
with Seattle footwear company Luna Sandals, are the presenting sponsors of the 2013 Hunter
Gatherer events. Several Survival Run: Hunter Gatherer competitors attended a survival training
weekend in early August, which was hosted by The Human Path, to learn the skills needed for
the race.

Austin based Epic Bars is a supporting sponsor of the Hunter Gatherer events. Epic Bars are protein bars made from grass fed meat and are a top seller at area natural grocery stores. Saquito Chia Energy Mix is another supporting sponsor. Saquito is a chia and hemp seed based energy food made from all natural, whole foods. The ingredients of both the Epic bars and the Saquito energy mix are foods that peoples native to the west Texas area would have recognized and used.

A portion of the proceeds from the Hunter Gatherer event will go to Norawas de Raramuri, a nonprofit which works with the Ultramarathon Caballo Blanco to ensure that the local Raramuri (Tarahumara) participants of the race receive the nonGMO seed corn and maize that are vital to their survival.

The races, both the Survival Runs and the Hunter Gatherer Ultramarathons, will take place on Saturday, October 5th at Camp Eagle in Rocksprings, TX starting at 4am. For more details or to apply for the Survival Run: Hunter Gatherer, please visit fuegoyagua.org.

For information on sponsorship opportunities, please contact Amanda Esquivel at [email protected].

Follow Fuego y Agua Survival Run on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/survivalrunning
Twitter: https://twitter.com/survivalrunning