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.
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.
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.
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.
The severe weather forecasts split the field into two halfes - the one that turned up, and the other one that did not. AJ team took calculated desicion to run event, and it was great success. Luckily competition did not get less fierce as all the main competitors were in the first half of the field.
Event was taken over by relay team Tri-X Performance, with young gun and raising star Tom Fisher demolishing the bike leg. First individual across the line was local elite adventurer Tim Boote. He was not short of competition with Rob Preston from Traralgon and Ian Franzke from Mt Beauty hot on his heels taken second and third. Wendy McAlpine blasted through the course ahead of most of the male field to win innaguaral East Gippsland Adventure Challenge
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.
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!
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.
Serge and Maria finished 10th in Mixed Category in World Rogaining Championships 2013. 
26-28 of April Team Peak Adventure Junkie is racing in Chinese Baise Leye Outdoor Quest.
The 
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.
"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!
