Adventure Junkie | Australia's Premier Adventure Racing Events

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.

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.

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 story of this race starts well before the actual date it took place. 

Twenty years ago, when I had just started adventure racing and it was still all very new to me, months before an upcoming event, I was carefully assessing every piece of equipment to the best of my ability, making sure it was all correct and exactly as required. 

The number of races had increased to a frequency of almost 1 per week at some stages and it was handy to have all equipment maintained and ready to go at all times.

The probability theory did not fail us this year and brought stunning weather to the East Gippsland. The Event had clearly seen increased numbers and local support. Inclusion in Adventure Cup series brought a few star athletes in; James Pretto from Melbourne managed to secure neck to neck win over his long-time rival, local adventure star Tim Boote; whilst Bern Dornom proved to be fastest lady over her rivals Maria Plyashechko and Marlena Ahrens. First team home was local "VT and The Meat Eaters" with Rod Smith, Joel Claxton and Patrick Howlett showing great performance in bike, run and kayak legs respectively.

AJ Crew asked a few questions to Lesa Muir, East Gippsland Challenge participant:

- How did you get involved into Adventure Racing?

Stage 4 melanoma cancer diagnosis prompted me to get out and start living life to the full, and nature was where my heart and soul wanted to be. 

My first race was a 48 hr adventure race in Albany WA and because we needed to be able to navigate I also fell into Rogaining. After many 24-hour races both in Australia and overseas I moved onto longer distance expedition races (XPD, Expedition Africa, GodZone). I would now say that most of my downtime is spent adventuring in some capacity, it’s more just a way of life than a sport these days.

King Valley Challenge has been on my bucket list since its inception back in 2010. The first attempt I made was in 2013. 

I woke up unwell on the morning of the event and battled with FOMO, while helping with boats in between paracetamols.

Since then I had participated in only one other relay race, where I took turns with Serge, juggling participating and parenting. 

This year somehow the stars aligned and we hit the road to King Valley late Friday afternoon, with me planning to race and Serge there to support me. 

A lack of training never could stop me from racing, but it was a slightly nerve-wracking atmosphere on the eve of the race, my emotions all over the place, regretting going somewhere and whinging about getting too lazy. However there could be no turning back, except maybe if I fell sick (that had already happened once, so I could not be that unlucky!). 

This European summer I took an opportunity to visit parents and to do few races, including three rogaines. One of them - 10 hour “Dusk till dawn” – as the same suggests- was overnight race we finished 1st, then 6 hour Solo –in pretty tough conditions- 30+ degrees, with detailed map- I came second. Finale was 18 hour Russian Championships on mountain bike we made couple of serious mistakes and came 4th.

I had a bit of re-thinking afterwards how it could be done better and here is a collection of thoughts which can be helpful for beginner-intermediate rogainers/adventure racers.

There are lots of rumoгrs about Tiger Adventure and Trevor Mullens, the man behind it. We know, Tiger Adventure signed up four expedition course teams to Alpine Quest, and we decided to interview Trevor and get some insides:

Why Adventure Racing? What do you like the most about AR?

I love exercise, I love adventure, I love going to places most people don’t go, I love the journey, I am competitive by nature, I love to challenge myself, I love team sports. AR is the ultimate physical and mental challenge. It has everything an adventurous person loves. Best sport ever created.

How Tiger was launched, any story behind it?

Preamble by Josh Roy, written by Sorcha Flett

We didn’t go get it like one other team. Start was go and swim across the river. Nearly at the other side and Tim Boote's team turned around and swam back for something they forgot. And then I heard another team ask if they had their tracker and I thought we didn’t get ours or talk of this. Haha. Serge suggest we be quiet and continue and they will bring it to next TA and we get penalty.

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.'

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.

While AdventureJunkie team (Serge Kurov and Josh Roy) raced and won the Geoquest-Wildside-Special-Edition-Half course, our friend and known adventurer Tom Chadbourne from Perth was watching online tracking and following social media controversial comments. Tom is the action man, so here are some thoughts which are closely aligned with AJ team thoughts, and already are or will become AdventureJunkie Rules some time soon. We would like to encourage discussion on our FB page, to come up with more defined set of rules and ultimately better events.

A couple of ideas came up after the weekend:

Tom Chadbourne is one of the most mysterious figures in the contemporary adventure racing circles. Most winning teams consist of people who have been around last 5 years at least with minor exceptions. Vast experience is considered a must have for successful expedition racing when we’re talking about public perception.

When Tom appeared on the podium  of X-Marathon  2017, all what we knew was his WA origin and super fitness. Soon after (in adventure racing terms) he is winning XPD and going to the World Championships this year

At the last Sprint Series event, I was really surprised to find out that there was a couple expecting marked course and obstacles, and were surprised to find out they need to bring their own bikes to the event. This came to my mind, the term “adventure race” got blurred with introduction of obstacle races to the event scene.  So I decided to put together some broad glossary, which I would use as a reference material for newbies.