Bob Miller: Champion Team Captain of Two Rivers Adventure Race
We are excited to share the following interview with Bob Miller, team captain of Team Canada Adventure.
Congratulations Team Canada Adventure for winning the 2024 Two Rivers Adventure Race!
Many thanks to mrsraft.com for their permission to repost this interview.
Could you introduce your team members?
Shannon Miller, The Teacher: Brings the speed, heart and toughness, whether trail running, marathoning or hitting adventure race podiums. This primary school teacher and mother of two understands the assignment: keeping tired teams and her navigator focused on moving forward.
Lyne Bessette, The Rider: Legendary pro road cycling and cyclecross career took her to the pro circuits of Europe, the Olympics, Canadian Championships and Commonwealth Games gold. “Retired” doesn’t really apply to Lyne. She has kept moving, whether piloting a cyclist to ParaOlympic gold, serving in Canada’s parliament, or excelling in a variety of high level endurance sports.
Ryan Atkins, The Athlete: Obstacle course racing legend (6 time World's Toughest Mudder winner, North American OCR Champ, Spartan Ultra Beast World Champ), world-class mountain biker and ultra runner. Whether an epic winter fat-biking journey or speed hiking mountain routes, Ryan lives for endurance adventures.
Scott Ford, The Paddler: Elite level flatwater Paddler, International Dragon Boat Racing, 2 time Eco-Challenge finisher with a surplus of expedition racing podiums. Family, endurance sports, career: this busy father of 4 keeps it all in balance, focusing on what the team needs.
Bob Miller, The Navigator & Captain: Veteran of 30+ Expedition adventure races; 4 time Adventure Racing World Series Event Winner and elite navigator. Plotting a route or planning an event, Bob thrives on getting the details right. The original Eco-Challenge inspired Bob towards a life and career filled with adventure.
Was this race the comeback event for your team?
Sort of. Scott, Ryan and I hadn’t raced together since Eco-Challenge Fiji in 2019, but the Adventure Racing World Championships coming to Canada in September 2025 inspired us to try and once again test ourselves against the world’s best adventure racers. Ryan and Scott had raced with Shannon at the Wilderness Traverse Adventure Race in September 2024. Shannon was meant to race at the Two Rivers race, however she was recovering from injury incurred at that earlier event. We were lucky Ryan has a legendary athlete for a neighbour and that Lyne was able to join the team on very short notice.
Did your team do any special training before the race?
Aside from attending the Wilderness Traverse event the month prior as a warm-up for Two Rivers, we weren’t able to get together for a team training camp. We did have many discussions about training and preparing for Two Rivers, mostly surrounding being prepared for the possible wet and cold temperatures. My favourite being Ryan’s idea for us all to submerge ourselves in an ice-cold lake or river on a cold & miserable day during a training session and continue on for a few hours to see how it felt and our bodies reacted. Funny enough, my training included just such an experience as I’d tipped a kayak on a recent long paddle-to-run workout and got to enjoy all the shivering such an excursion entails.
Are there any special training methods or strategies you'd like to share?
A lot of what we do is based on building the necessary volume, or “base” to move for hours and days on end. While this entails many hours in each discipline each week, just as important we include strength training sessions and any recovery, or injury prevention sessions which may include; yoga, massage, hot/cold therapy etc. We mostly look for endurance-based adventurous outings wherever we may be as those are the missions that most closely resemble races and are also the most fun!
Could you tell us about your experience during the race? What challenges did your team face and how did you overcome them to win?
Two Rivers was a very tight race with many teams going back & forth for the first 14 hours or so. I think most teams knew the event was going to be won or lost on the final long trek in the dark as this stage provided the biggest navigation challenge and biggest opportunity for things to go wrong. Our strategy was to race smart and conservative until that final trek and then see how much gas we had left in the tank for a final push to the finish. I struggled early, with cramps setting in towards the end of the 1st trek and onto the bikes. My teammates helped by both taking my pack and towing me at certain stages. I then faced GI issues (likely all related to a poor nutrition plan) towards the end of the final bike and into the final trek. Again, my teammates were there to help carry extra weight and help maximize our team’s pace. Ryan also lost his rear brake disc shortly into the first bike leg so he was without that brake for the remainder of the event. Not sure that slowed him down any. Having Lyne join the team at the last minute was a concern going in, as we’d never met or raced together. However, the collective years of experience of all four of us helped. It was obvious immediately she knew what it took to both pack & prepare for the event as well as endure and perform at a high level for the duration, all with a positive attitude. Our biggest set-back was a navigation error on the final challenging trek which cost us over an hour. We feared we had lost the race in that moment, but luckily practically every other team also faced navigation issues on this especially challenging section. It’s funny how time can slip away so quickly when in the middle of a navigation blunder, but we remained calm and made a difficult but right choice to relocate back to a road and re-attack the CP. Even then, we didn’t find the CP until another team passed by and let us know they’d found it just a few metres from where we’d been searching. Such is racing in the dark in the Pennsylvania hills…..it also shows these races can hinge on luck at times.
What challenges and lessons did this race teach your team?
The biggest lessons that were reinforced at this event were to always remain positive, ask for help when needed, and work together as a unit. It would have been easy for me to lose focus when my body was showing signs of struggle with the cramps and GI issues, but I spoke up early and let my teammates help so I could recover. Lyne was also vocal in asking for help, or needing the pace to slow on technical trekking stages, which again allowed the team to move more quickly overall. We’re always looking to improve our navigation process, so throughout the event Scott and I were discussing navigation routes and strategy, which helped keep us on course and moving efficiently.
What are your team's future plans or goals after the race?
We’re ultra-excited to have won entry to the AR World Championships in Canada next year. Our training plans/goals/races have slowly been crystalizing with an eye to peaking for the World Championships. We’re all eyeing various individual goals in the lead-up whether it be an epic FKT attempt, long biking mission, or ultra trail run. We’ll also team up for a few 24-30 hour events in the lead-up, plus hopefully a training camp or two. We’re all excited for the year ahead!
We are proud sponsors of Team Canada Adventure and wish them all the best in 2025!