Adventure Junkie | Australia's Premier Adventure Racing Events

Recovery is an interesting topic that attracts a lot of attention, usually focussed narrowly on either the nutrition or the musculoskeletal aspect.

I will try to quickly get you through main aspects and then you can get into any details by yourself.

It is a very basic summary, as the topic is too broad to be described in one short article.

Winning, how it’s done?

I did not finish on multisport podium for a while, not last 3 years at least. As you can see on the finish video, our family had grown in numbers about three years ago; having no parents around, growing Adventure Junkie business and relatively new and demanding job does not help with free time, hence training was finally given up about two years ago.

Serge and Maria finished 10th in Mixed Category in World Rogaining Championships 2013. 

We went to our homeland Russia, this year for a month in July not only to visit our families and see friends but we also kept in mind World Rogaining Championships hosted this year in Pskov region. This area is known to be an orienteering mecca for ages, having pretty much 'Scandinavian" - style landscape. I think it was one of the hardest terrains to navigate through, with numerous 5 to 15 meter depressions randomly distributed through the forest without any system except ridgelines and depressions directions; multiple marshes, bogs and impassable water bodies.

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26-28 of April Team Peak Adventure Junkie is racing in Chinese Baise Leye Outdoor Quest.

Team consists of Jarad Kohlar, Ian Franzke, Serge Kurov and Maria Plyashechko.

It's three days stage race through the mountainous and quite picturesque region of Guahgxi Province.

Course is divided into 3 stages, the total distance is 220 km. 

Disciplines include running, mountain biking, kayaking, rope related activities (abseil or zip line), some puzzle solving and Chinese national games. 

There is other very competitive Australian team Moxie Gear/ Nuun racing: Deanna Blegg, Darren Clarke, Tim Boote and Alex Hunt.

Besides, overall field looks good: Thule team (France, NZ, Sweden), FJS (competitive and very experienced Swedish team), Latvian team Ebike.lv,  French team Merrell VP, traditionally strong Chinese teams.

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Before the race | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 

Sprint Series Adventure Race was on 15th of October in Westerfolds. The course was smashed by team PeakAdventure.com.au Jarad Kohlar and Kathryn Morland. We are lucky to get Kathyn's report from the race. Full results are here>>

Kathryn: It is hard to say where my motivation for adventure racing comes from, but I seem to have a never ending supply of drive and inspiration.

The Upper Murray Challenge is one of the oldest Australian multisport events. The first edition took place in 2003 and since then it has become a recognised achievement to win or even just complete this gruelling event and a must-do for every multisport athlete. The 2017 edition will take place on 4th of November at the same place - the Kosciuszko foothills.

2-3 December 2017 multisporters, adventure racers and their families will head to Lakes Entrance, a premier adventure destination, to have a fun weekend of racing East Gippsland Adventure Challenge.

The full on schedule is prepared for all adventurers, keeping in mind weekend warriors, elite athletes and their precious ones.

Three events are on offer over two days:

One of the oldest, hardest and most famous Australian multisport events – Upper Murray Challenge  is on again. 4th of November 2017 is the date and registration is open on uppermurraychallenge.com.au 

Being held since 2003 Upper Murray Challenge race is one of the most competitive and spectacular events in Australia. Nested in the foothills of Mt Kosciousko race course offers stunning mountain views and tough challenging course. The race had been cancelled for two years and now Adventure Junkie with a lot of help of local community are reincarnating it into World class event how it used to be.

This year I was lucky to win a free entry to Kathmandu Coast to Coast World Multisport Championship, the race every multisport/adventure racer should do at least once.  This put me and all our family under a little bit of a pressure, as this race is known to be a hard one in terms of logistics and cut offs. However, despite all challenges I, Serge and our 1,5 year old Alexander made it to Christchurch one week prior the race. I did not manage to put enough hours of training into it, but it is, first of all, about having fun and second, about a result, right? 

Well it was actually a relatively relaxed pre race having had the logistics planner for the past week or so. Really just meant we spent a lot of extra time packing and repacking and analyzing packing choices.

The prologue and opening ceremony on Tuesday evening was a great chance to mingle with some other teams and partake in some classic Aussie style fun – a handball competition, vegemite sandwich eating competition, beach esky and thong relay and surf life saving flag race. Bit of a laugh before the opening ceremony welcome, complete with Tim Tams and steak sangas.

We had sorted and packed all our gear into tubs and after registering and going through mandatory competencies Wednesday morning, we dropped our tubs and bike boxes off Wednesday evening. Quite civilized really.

Finished first place in 24hrs 27min 15sec (a new record time for Geoquest apparently)

This was the team’s first hit out since Godzone and we had finally recovered from that epic expedition and were excited and ready to race together again.

• Hugh Stodart – team captain and chief navigator
• Serge Kurov – second navigator on foot
• Josh Street – backup bike navigator, team welfare captain and general packhorse/strongman/fix-it-guy
• Bernadette Dornom – “token chick” (and primary author in case you were wondering)

"It looked pretty straight forward on the maps, but reality proved different with lots of fresh and old unmarked logging roads etc keeping everyone guessing.  Even the MTB park map was incomplete." - enjoy team AdventureJunkie.com.au story, epic jorney through New Zealand wilderness in 4.5 days, prepared by Bern Dornom and Hugh Stodard!

#1  IGNORE CONTOUR INTERVALS.

Seems like an obvious thing, but quite often we take a map and focus on route planning without paying enough attention to the legend of the  map. Mountainous areas might have 20 (even 50) meter contour intervals which makes it a whole different story, as steep climbing as well as steep descending slows you down dramatically and ultimately leads to a different route choice strategy.

Brief facts about a race - Wengzhou Adventure Challenge, one of the most prestigious adventure races in China, 4-day stage event, with daily distances around 70-90km. Prize money $150000, distributed among first 12 teams of four. 30 teams, about 22-23 foreign ones and quite strong local Chinese teams is the rest.
Some facts about the team Adventure Junkie - Serge Kurov & Maria Plyshechko, Adventure Junkie full-time crew from Melbourne, VIC; Alex Hunt from Hobart, TAS; Sam Stedman from Townsville, QLD. We have been racing together before for a few times, we working great as a team and our mind is set on the result. It is easy, when goals are clear and the same for everyone in the team.

After winning Grampians Challenge Wendy McAlpine confirmed her participation in East Gippsland Challenge

Wendy has beeing competing in triathlons for 18+ years, across all distances from Sprint to Ironman.  Between 2013-17 she also raced as a professional, her best results include:   1^st Australian Alpine Ascent 2016,  4^th Ironman Cairns 2014,  6^th Ironman Australia 2016, 8^th Ironman New Zealand 2017.

It’s 07:00 on a cold and wet Sunday morning in November 2013 and I found myself sitting in my car at Brimbank Park in Keilor, a north western suburb of Melbourne. I am feeling overwhelmed and nervous thinking, as I take in my surroundings, that I am in way over my head, that I am out of my depth, I am outclassed, out equipped and I’m about to be exposed as the fraud and pretender that I really am.

I am fighting that voice inside my head that is screaming at me that I don’t belong, that I’m not good enough, don’t know what I am doing and that I don’t have the right or what it takes to be a part of that which lies before me this day.

Adventure Racing, in particular Mark Burnett’s Eco Challenge is the reason I run today.

When I first saw Eco Challenge Australia on TV sometime in the late 90′s or early 2000s, something stirred within me, something raw and natural came to life, emotions were awakened and life seemed to take on new meaning, it’s purpose made clear.

Adventure!  Life was to be an adventure, it was to be lived, enjoyed, explored and conquered!

Australian Multisport Championships
The idea to race the Freycinet Lodge Challenge has been with me probably from the first time heard about it: two days of racing in one of the most spectacular regions of Australia sounded absolutely fantastic.
Most of our fellow adventure racers were there, bringing back great memories and stories, so the Australian Multisport Champs was on the must do list for a long time. Race headquarters was located at the Freycinet Lodge at Coles bay Tasmania, a place of exceptional beauty with stunning views of the granite peaks of The Hazards, white sand and blue sea including Wineglass Bay (voted by several travel authorities as one of the world’s ten best beaches). 

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It was my second Geoquest and probably around 10th smaller (30-50hours) expedition race. I’ve got a spot in a very good team again with Hugh Stodart, and Sam Stedman and Jenny Roberts from Townsville. It is amazing how team got formed, from different and so remote spots. I’ve raced twice with Hugh both times quite successfully with 10th place finish at 2011 AR World Championships in Tassie and 13th at 2012 Ordos Adventure Quest in China.

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