The best adventure races in Australia

"Now that I’ve browsed the AFR (a breakfast routine hangover from COVID) it’s time to write about perfection. I’ve been avoiding this for two weeks as the storyline hasn’t evolved in my head beyond one word ‘flow’. The story unfolds in Paynesville, Gippsland during X-Marathon Nargun and the Lakes Edition 2021."- Eibhlin Fletcher, team BUFFalos, second place finisher. 

Eibhlin is a leadership and team coach, and founder of Get A Grip of the Grind. She’s an avid adventure racer and endurance athlete that uses her experiences to enhance the performance of leaders and teams. You can find out more about Eibhlin and Get A Grip of the Grind (the annual festival is coming up in February 2022 in Bright, NE Victoria) here>>

With this week’s announcement from the Victorian and NSW  Governments giving the events green light to proceed, we can't wait to welcome you back to the adventures as we come out of lockdown.

We encourage anyone with a craving for fresh air, great company, racing excitement to join us again and experience the friendly social atmosphere, scenic terrain and magical wilderness together!

The 2019 edition was the most competitive in the history of the event, especially in the women's field. The Solo categories were taken out by Nathan Stewart from Newcastle and Elizabeth Dornom from Melbourne. They both took an early lead and while Liz was pushed by her sister Bern all the way and successfully maintained her first position, Nathan had a strong ride and run leg coming into the paddle with a significant advantage but nearly lost it having difficulties to navigate the kayaking leg.  Numerous battles were happening for the 2nd and 3rd position during the course. Angus Rodwell and Josh Roy demonstrated outstanding paddle times and got on the podium racing flat out on the last section of the course.

Once again we’re back, with introduction of disciplines you will endeavour during X-Marathon 2019. 

We’re excited to announce the course has been fully checked, double-checked and all the details are almost finalised and ready to be presented. So expect all updates to be sent out during September, with the registration deadline being the 1^stof October. 

The second discipline to be introduced is packrafting - this is only included in the Full course. The Half course teams will miss out on this one.

Have you contemplated the challenge of doing an off-road Multisport race, but the thought of giving up all your free time for training holds you back? Or perhaps, you’re an experienced triathlete, having completed many different triathlon races but lack off-road skills?

We have designed a simple training plan for people who don’t have much spare time, but want to complete the Baw Baw Extreme course without illness or injury. It’s not suited to beginner endurance athletes, but more for beginner Multisport athletes.

Registrations are well under way for X-Marathon 2021, Nargun and the Lakes edition. Two epic courses (Full and Half) have been designed to accommodate all levels of adventurers. Both courses have 36 hours cut-off times with the Full course the more technical, being more physically and navigationally demanding. The winners are expected to finish within 24 hours

Teams will navigate through challenging terrain between checkpoints using only maps supplied by race organisers and compass. You won’t be totally on your own as spectators will be able to follow each team on-line via a live tracking system that will showcase all teams’ progress during the event.

Adventure Cup races – Victorian Calendar 2019/2020. As in the innaguaral 2018-2019 season, there are three events included. The final brand new event, Baw Baw Extreme, will offer double points, and is considered the Championship event. Ready to choose your challenge?

• Upper Murray Challenge - 5^th of October 2019
• East Gippsland Challenge - 30^th of November 2019
• Baw Baw Extreme - 17-19^th April 2020 - the Championship event with double points

Give yourself a goal and commit to the Adventure.

I just went to Avon Descent Downriver Kayaking Race in Perth.  It was a fantastic experience and when I close my eyes, I can’t stop seeing those rapids for the second day in a row. The distance is 124km over two days, 52km and 72km respectively.

I was going to give it a go 3 years ago, and then again 2 years ago. I almost went last year, but again, didn’t make it. This year I submitted my entry straight away. Next thing, I found a suitable-looking Spirit Fury in Perth, purchased it, and my good friend Tom Chadsbourne went and picked it up for me and stored at his place.

You know it’s been a good weekend when, late on Sunday afternoon you find yourself and one of your best mates staring at the payment collection station on Barcelona Highway, trying to push your credit card into the cash slot and wondering why the damn thing doesn’t fit.. 

Exactly two years ago, standing on the third step of the podium at the World Rogaining Championships in Latvia, we did not set any long-standing plans. We were just excited to make it there with very little training under our belts. This is when it all started really. A couple of months after our bronze finish, looking back at all results and analyzing our shape and preparation, it became obvious that there is some unfinished business there.

Adventure racing looks exciting and, as its name suggests, it is more of an adventure rather, than a race. It is truly relevant to the sprint events as well as expedition race. 

"The very first race I registered for was about 50 km long. Based on the normal perception of 42.2 km being a standard marathon, to say I was slightly nervous would have been an understatement. 12-hour events came up quickly and less than a year later I was into the real expedition stuff." - Maria, event director.

X-Marathon Expedition Adventure race is a pinnacle of Australian adventure racing. To assist you with your training for this epic eventwe are starting to disclose a little bit more about the race course. This year, both Full course - 60 hours and Half course - 40 hours,  will include a SwimRun section. Replacing an ocean swim section,  the SwimRun leg will include inlet swimmings along with some trekking and coasteering in-between.

Read more at XMarathon.com.au >>

Upper Murray Challenge is one of the toughest multisport events in the Australian racing calendar. It consists of three legs: 28 km mountain bike ride, 27 km downriver paddle and 23,5 km trail run, with each of them being challenging enough to race alone. Each year only the toughest racers attempt to finish the full course Solo, and not everyone succeeds. Training for the race like Upper Murray  Challenge is not an easy task, here are a brief outlines of what needs to be done in order to complete the event.

Read more at UpperMurrayChallenge.com.au >>

The field was extremely competitive with the winner in the Classic course determined during the final advanced mountain bike leg, with 7 teams racing head to head going into the last leg. 

Greg Ley and Adrian McGregor of team Marshans showed off their outstanding riding abilities and came in first to the finish line.  Family team, Rob and Felix Davis - Tandoori Chickens, dominated in the Novice category. Full results available here>> 

Race HQ greeted teams with ideal racing conditions, with a temperature of 15 degrees and blue skies over scenic Lysterfield Park.

The first Adventure Cup winners are officially Maria Plyashechko and James Pretto in female and male ranking accordingly. They both managed to accumulate the biggest amount of points based on results in three brutal multisport events:  Upper Murray Challenge, East Gippsland Challenge, and Grampians Challenge. 

The full ranking is here>> and we would like to congratulate all participants that took part in the inaugural edition of this unique Series. We hope you have achieved your goals whether it was to finish one leg of a single event, beat your best mate or get on the podium of all three challenges.

PacKraft is proud to have had a relationship with the AR community over the last 2 years. With experience providing lightweight and durable packrafts for adventure races such as X-Marathon, and GODZone, the team at PacKraft have continued re-designing and refining their packraft range based on feedback from members of the AR community.

The newest version of the Duo ADV2 (2-person model) includes a range of improvements over previous models and designs.

The latest ‘Superlight’ material provides stronger and lighter packrafts.  This means you carry less weight, and the packraft also takes up less space due to the more flexible material, while providing a higher tear strength than ever before.

Sorcha had a great season of racing establishing herself as one of the strongest Australian multisport and adventure racing female athletes with convincing victory in the Grampians Challenge.  This is what she said after her race: 

“I have found myself going to the Grampians quite frequently for training because it’s close to where I’m living at the moment, it’s a beautiful place to go to on my days off and has the only hills of any degree I can get to within 2 hrs drive! So I was pretty excited when I found out AJ host a race there. 

The race started with the run and I looked around at the start line and thought, “it’s going to be a hard day!” The field was strong. My vague race intention was to try to get a bit of a gap in the run, try not to lose too much time in the paddle and then go all out in the bike, as it’s my strength. 

Alpine Avengers were undoubtedly in a class of their own at Alpine Quest earlier this year, tackling the monster terrain like a finely tuned machine and taking out the inaugural title. Adventure Junkie recently touched base with the team to quiz them about their preparation, tips and see what they’ve been up to.

What attracted you to Alpine Quest?

Liz: I love the Falls Creek area and it is a favorite destination for good quality training in summer (although I must admit I have never been there in winter). I also know that adventure junkie always put on quality races and so this race was certainly on my radar as soon as it was announced.

2019 marks the 8^thedition of X-Marathon so we decided to look back into the remarkable history of this event. 

At the start of 2011, Serge and Maria, fresh immigrants from Russia, searched adventure racing calendars in Victoria and found there was a gap in the State’s Adventure Racing schedule, actually, there were almost no races scheduled at all.

They thought everyone needs to experience a real adventure, and so Adventure Junkie was born.

I competed in my second ever X-Tri on the 23rd February this year at the Australian National Championships held in the beautiful surrounds of Lake Crackenback. I was looking forward to a cruisy race where I could just plod along and have fun with no pressure, as it wasn’t my normal sport of on-road triathlon.

We arrived at Lake Crackenback at 7 am when it was a chilly 2 degrees. Luckily it later warmed up to be a beautiful day. After setting up our gear in transition, we headed to a warm spot in the cafe for an early coffee while waiting for the race briefing and the start.