Apparently teachers have lives outside of school. Crazy right? A lot of Brunswick teachers are very active runners, cyclists, and enjoy kayaking, canoeing, swimming, and walking the trails off the Potomac in their off time. One example of this would be Mr. Johnson, a teacher at Brunswick High School. When first walking into Mr. Johnson’s history classroom you see a colorful classroom decorated with students’ artwork from old assignments, some rolly chairs, pictures of his family and Adventure racing team, a bike, and on some days a yoga mat lying on the floor.
Aside from teaching, one of Mr. Johnson’s passion is adventure racing. When asked in an interview what adventure racing Mr. Johnson described it as: “It is like an adult scavenger hunt. Where you travel via different disciplines looking for checkpoints that have been placed in the wilderness. It’s unlike traditional races because there is no set path you have to follow. It requires maps to find checkpoints and the goal is to have the amount of check points before the time limit.”
He was super passionate about it and wanted to share it with his students. Therefore, he created the adventure racing club! “The club is about getting kids outdoors and experiencing the outdoors in different activities as the club goes. We want to include mountain biking eventually. Members learn team skills, navigation, map reading and the importance of mental toughness,” said Mr. Johnson in an interview.
The goal of the club is to be able to have “competition against high schools while using connections to learn about map reading and occasionally learning how to mountain bike. In a way building skills is just exploring while you run.”
Kids who are a part of the club have the opportunity to explore and stay active in a fun way. The club’s name is Full Steam Ahead, due to us being the railroaders the club wanted to highlight the school. Full Steam Ahead started about six months ago, the first big event that the club held was an after school race. The students competed like it was an actual race, and there were even train whistle prizes for the people that came first in their category. The next race that is coming up is October 14, 2023. Mr. Johnson participates in these races. He is ranked 4th in the nation and has won many prizes. Recently Mr. Johnson and his daughter got second place in their category for a race.
When running the races there are different divisions on how people are scored:
- Male doubles
- Female doubles
- Co-ed
- Solo race
Adventure racing club members before a race. (Photos from @full_steam_ahead)
If you are interested in the club Great! Please contact Mr. Johnson! The club is looking for new people that are
interested in spending time outdoors and hanging out with friends.
