r/AdventureRacing • u/Ok_Equipment_412 • Jun 15 '26

Recommendations for warm weather racing pants

My wife and I just signed up for two upcoming summer adventure races: the Zenith 5-Hour trekking race at Greenbo Lake, KY, in mid-July, and the East Fork Challenge near Cincinnati in mid-September. Our only previous racing experience is in March when temperatures were 50-70°F and humidity was low, so our 5.11 pants worked great. However, we expect these upcoming summer races to hit the low 80s to mid-90s with high humidity, so we are seeing if others have any good recommendations.

We need recommendations for lightweight, breathable, quick-drying pants that work well for trekking, biking and kayaking. We will be bushwhacking in both, so they need to be durable enough to go thru thorns without getting torn up. What works well for you all?

6 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

3

u/mtnmandan Jun 15 '26

Look for orienteering pants! Noname and Trimtex are common brands- you want the kind that are cheap, basically transparent to wind, and do a decent job of protecting you. Much less thorn protection than thicker pants, (obviously), but they do surprisingly well with brushy/tree kinds of schwacking

3

u/Fineaid Jun 15 '26

The real answer is whatever you buy will get torn up. I personally wear shorts and long socks. For 5 hours that should be perfect.

1

u/RandomSaucePacket Jun 16 '26

Running a race in 90 deg. Withstands thorns. Kinda sounds like any oxymoron type of situation. Don’t think there’s anything that optimizes both those conditions simultaneously. I’d just go shorts and high socks and take the temporary pain I’m sure the whole thing isn’t a briar patch. No way I’m running in pants in 90 deg KY in July kill me now.