ELK COUNTY, PA (WTAJ) — The United States Adventure Race Association is holding a qualifier this week that will span the Pennsylvania Wilds region.

The Endless Mountains Adventure Race is a five day, 352-mile/550 kilometer course that covers the wilds region. Teams of two to four started the race Monday in Punxsutawney and will be racing through Curwensville, Clearfield, St. Marys, Ridgway, Cook Forest and the surrounding wilderness before ending in Clarion on Friday.

The race was founded by Brent Freedland and Abby Perkiss, who have been marathoning, triathloning, adventure racing, mountain biking, paddling and more for nearly two decades. They are also the founders of Rootstock Racing, a nonprofit adventure race promotion company.

“My husband, two kids and I in November of 2020 have been in our house since March and we were dying to get out of our zip code. So we rented a little cabin in Weedville and we encountered the Pennsylvania Elk Herd. We started to get the idea, we planned small races before and thought a lot of an exhibition race.” Perkiss said.

The race is a United States Adventure Race Association qualifier, but will not be an Adventure Race World Series qualifier until next year.

Heidi Muller the CEO of Adventure Racing World Series came to the Keystone state all the way from South Africa to attend the event.

“I look at all the big exhibition races around the world and it’s incredible to be here in Pennsylvania and if it wasn’t for this event I wouldn’t be able to see this amazing area.” said Muller.

A live tracker of all the teams can be found here or on Rootstock Racing’s Facebook page. The tracker will show where all the teams are along the race route throughout the week.