Adventure Junkie

Upper Murray Challenge is one of the oldest and toughest Australian Multisport races and will be held on 6^th of October in the Kosciuszko National Park foothills. The race features an exciting 25 km downriver paddle, challenging run with a stunning off - road section through Mt Elliot and demanding 28 km mountain bike leg.

With less than 2 months to go we have finally confirmed a new MTB course

I love Rogaines. By saying that, I also love racing well, racing in new places, and racing on difficult maps. I think these three usually do not peacefully co-exist. Anyway, I’m in Melbourne, and family is still back in Russia, so I thought I might do some training – racing – scouting and hanging outdoors on weekends as much as possible. 

With Josh we planned to go to the Hells Bells race in Brisbane straight after our win at Geo-half back in June. We were thinking to get together a team of four, but it is always a hard work. I was lucky enough to meet Sorcha, her athletic bio and attitude was looking promising, so I just went straight and proposed to race with us. She said “yes” in a matter of minutes and we started our dialog. 

Last year's individual male winner, Damon Goerke, shares his thoughts about last years race and about upcoming event on 6th of October.

How many times have you done UMC?

I did the very first one and a couple more along the way, but haven't been back for at least 10 years.

Any other remarkable stories from previous years?

Not really. I remember Rob Preston fell out of his boat the last time I did it.

What is your highlight (the best part of the course)?

Group of four boys and two girls from St Leonards school are getting ready to tackle Snowy Hydro Upper Murray Challenge this year as a team of six. Mark Slykhuis, well known adventure racing and multisport athlete and coach from St Leondards school is leading the team, and promted few questions to them. AJ team is looking forward to support young generation in our events!

Hi Guys, nice to chat to you, what is the reason, why you are doing all this?

'We have been part of the schools adventure racing program for a couple of years now and are keen to take on a tougher challenge where will be required to really test ourselves. The UMC seems like the perfect event with three roughly equally tough legs of mountain-biking, paddling and trail running. Working with our team over the day will require us to support, motivate and encourage each other. Our aim is to complete the event in around 10 hours.'

Led by Jan Leverton Tri Adventure Girls will be one of teams to watch out at the upcoming Alpine Quest Falls Creek event. All girls have different preferences in disciplines but share common vision: to go out, explore, enjoy being outdoors, meet lovely people - this is what makes an amazing team. 

Q: Why do you do adventure races?

Jan: I love the team concept and the opportunity to go into the outdoors and explore places that very few people have been.  

Abbey: Enjoy being out in nature, visiting new places, fitness, the challenge,  meeting others that race as they are genuine and lovely people and good stress relief ☺

We were standing on a shore line as long as we could trying to avoid going into the freezing waters of  Åresjönlake. This is a classic moment when I feel sorry for doing all these races, especially looking into the eyes of my child leaving him with someone else (lucky it was my mom this time). However, there was not much time for reflection, so I jumped into the boat and headed off for a quick warm up.  

Background: Åre Extreme Challenge is Scandinavia's first and oldest multisport adventure race and the Open European Championship in Multisport. It is hold in the stunning ski resort Åre. Tourism there started in 1882 and in 2008 Åre was listed in top 10 world ski resorts. Few MTB races of world level were held there over the years.