Women Only Adventure 2018 done and dusted and wasn't it great?
Despite the forecast it turned to be a great day of racing with mild temperature and one or two showers to settle the dust. Wind added up a bit of a challenge to a paddle leg and a lot to organising part- we were struggling to put all race bags together and start/finish arch upright.
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.
Less than a month left till Grampians Challenge kicks off in the spectacular Wartook Valley and we’re excited to announce one more sponsor jumped on board in the last moment. Horsham Athlete’s Foot storewill provide awards to the fastest across 9 km run. It means if you are a trail runner on 14,7 km run you are still in a draw to win the prize if you overrun multisporters and relay runners across 9 km distance from Zumsteins to Wartook lake.
We were lucky to have a chat with SOLO winners of Grampians Challenge 2016 Lisa Dominguez and Stewart Bennet about their nutrition and gear strategies. Learn how champions do it and who they are.
Q: We all know you are well developed through all three disciplines, but what is you strongest discipline, and which one is least? What is your sport background?
Lisa: The bike is my strongest leg and I am least experienced in paddling.
I did athletics as a kid and then moved into field hockey and swimming in high school, then triathlon. I did my first adventure race in 2016.
The Adventure Junkie X-Marathon adventure race is scheduled for Australia Day weekend 25-28th of January in 2018. The coastal village of Marlo in eastern Victoria will host the seventh edition of the event.
Once again teams of fours are invited to explore East Gippsland wilderness in a fully supported, professionally organised expedition style adventure race. The race organisers supply kayaking equipment and full logistics support, making this event perfectly suited for interstate and international teams.
Trekking, mountain biking and kayaking legs will be the main stages of the course with some additional disciplines to spice up the challenge. The course will be almost linear with a remote start location and finish at the race HQ.
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.
Grampians Challenge multisport and trail run registration is open
Once again 17th of September you are invited to experience magic of Grampians in the multisport and trail running events. The course is set in one of the most dramatic Victorian landscapes- Wartook valley of the Northern Grampians.
Classic multisport course consisted of 9 km running along spectacular Mackenzie falls walking trail, 10 km of paddling in pristine Wartook lake and 35 km of mountain bike riding along Mt Difficult range would not leave disappointed athletes of all abilities from weekend warriors to super fast guns.
Hail, rain, crazy wind and other 99 teams did not stop Jarad Kohlar and Lisa Dominguez from taking out Sprint Series Adventure race last Sunday. Kim Willock and Dave Cole were chasing them all the way but small navigational mistake did not let them to beat Jarad and Lisa.
The course was set up in spectacular Lysterfield park, the iconic Melbourne adventure playground with pristine lake, dedicated mountain bike trails, detailed orienteering map and few hills to negotiate. The weather added few challenges switching on Melbourne classic winter conditions: showers followed by gusts and some sun in between.
After 24,5 hours of tight racing team Thunderbolt AR first crossed the finish line in coastal village Metung East Gippsland, Victoria Australia.
“We were just waiting till Peakadventure.com.au made a mistake”- admitted Hugh Stodart, team captain and main navigator when he was asked about their race. “It was very smoothly ran event, course was suitably challenging, we managed to pick a pretty good route through the trails up in the hills, ended up a good result for us”, he said.
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?
Good day and welcome! Here is a long awaited information pack with some details on trekking, mtb, packrafting and white water kayaking stages. We had extended standard entry for another 10 days to give those expecting this info pack to digest and enter the race before 10th of Feb, 23:59 cut off time.
The 2017 edition HQ is a coastal village Metung located 3 hours drive from Melbourne, 5 hours from Canberra and 8 hours from Sydney. The closest international airport is Melbourne Tullamarine. Metung is located on a narrow peninsula of land separating Bandroft Bay and Lake King. Situated in East Gippsland and ideally place with the surrounding protected waters of the Gippsland lakes.
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.
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.
Grampians Challenge 2016 updates: new date is announced
Previously postponed Grampians Challenge race has finally got a new date. 27th of November is now confirmed with Parks Victoria. All previous entries are transferred to the new date and registration is open again for those who could not make a previous date but interested to take part 27th of November.
Originally scheduled for 16th of September classic multisport race Grampians Challenge was cancelled due to extreme floods in the Northern Grampians.
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!
“If you are an adventure racer and you did not race in the Grampians this weekend you missed out a great event”- Rob Preston, team ThoughtSports/Shotz Nutrition said. Grampians National Park is a Victorian gem, listed in Australian National Heritage list and offers endless opportunities for those looking for some adrenalin: dramatic sandstone formations, pristine lakes and extensive net of 4wd roads.