Based at Pallarenda; the Adventurethon National Challenge weekend is fast approaching on July 4-5. Sandwiched between the Townsville Triathlon Festival and the Paluma Push, it offers a fantastic way to test your skills and fitness off-road in some of our most spectacular natural surroundings during the best time of year. Whether you do a single leg as a team or tackle the paddle, mountain bike and trail run solo; here are a lucky 13 reasons why you shouldn’t miss out on this iconic event that’s expanding all over Australia:

1. Paddle with a buddy: Grab a family member or mate and jump into a double kayak. This is the first time Adventurethon has offered this option and you can just imagine the amount of laughter, banter and potential arguments involved. We can’t wait! There are 50 of these babies and, at an impressively low-cost of $20 each to hire (including two paddles and PFDs), there’s never been a better time to team-up. Our tip: If you’re not keen on paddling, just sit at the back – they won’t notice you’re not doing anything…
2. Check out the trails: We are fortunate enough to have some amazing off-road trails here in Townsville and this race, and the training in the lead-up, allows you to immerse yourself in the wonder of Pallarenda. From the wetlands of the Town Common and the heights of Mount Marlow on the run legs, to the world-class Smedley’s Hill and freshly-tweaked Under the Radar mountain bike tracks, they are fantastically designed and the views are good enough to take away the pain. For a bit.
3. New course: Embrace the first chance to race the spectacular new Ultra course, including the technical Smedley’s Hill loop, which has never been tackled in an Adventurethon race (it was still being built this time last year).
4. No swimming required: Finding a swimmer is often to trickiest part of a team event, but there’s no need to with Adventurethon – paddle and still get the thrill of a multisport race. Don’t like paddling? See point 1.
5. Rated as the best, by the best: Townsville is ranked as one of the best multisport courses in Australia by multiple National Champion Jarad Kohlar. And he knows his stuff.
6. Represent your country in NZ: The male and female winners of the Ultra race will get free entry to the gruelling 243km Coast to Coast multisport race in New Zealand in February next year; showing the Kiwis how it’s done.
7. Get dollars for your speed: The fastest Ultra or Duathlon bike ride, run and paddle will score $250 each. And that’s for both the first male and the first female competitors in each leg. Cha-ching.
8. Take it off-road triathletes: If you’ve been training hard for Ironman and/or the Townsville Triathlon Festival, don’t put your awesome fitness to waste – take your athleticism off-road and have an adventure. Seriously, use the fitness while you have it: It’s hard to stay in shape all year!
9. Race with the best: Compete alongside some of the nation’s best adventure athletes, including multiple National Champion Jarad Kohlar, plus James Pretto and Sam Stedman (Townsville) who will both give Jarad a run for his money (Sam has been in the same team as Jarad in other recent multisport races so we hope he has picked up a few sneaky tips). Plus look out for gun girls Coffs Coast female champion Karen Masson, previous Magnetic Island Adventurethon winner Julie Sager, and 24-Hour HotRock and Zach Mach winner Chris Labes. It’s expected to be a tight competition with these talented ladies.
10. It’s good enough for V8 Driver David Reynolds: Dave, also a triathlete, recently did a mini Adventurethon sampling parts of the course with the likes of the Townsville Fire’s Jacqui Zelenka, Townsville Crocodiles’ Mitch Norton, endurance athlete Luke Miles and professional dancer Andrew Searle from Dancenorth. He loved it and won all three disciplines.
11. Inter-service challenge: Defence and services have a category and you can put in an Ultra team to challenge any of the other services, from nurses, ambos, police and firefighters to defence force personnel. Ooooh that could get interesting!
12. Survived Maggie? Step it up: The course is easier than the challenging and humid Magnetic Island race (March), so it’s a good chance to step it up to a bigger distance. Go on. Do it…
13. Support local: This great homegrown event – created and run by Joel and Tamara Savage – expands every year with your support. With Adventurethon events already in Coffs Harbour, Kalbarri, Albany, Magnetic Island and Townsville, Joel and Tamara have just introduced a Victorian version in Anglesea. What’s next? World domination of course. So best sign-up now 😉

V8 Driver David Reynolds, also a triathlete, checks out the Adventurethon course.

Get involved

There are less than 30 spots left for Adventurethon National Challenge’s Saturday event, so get in now if you’re keen. Here are the distances and events below, but find out more and register on the Adventurethon website.

If you’re going to be in it, you might as well have fun. Who cares if you look like a ‘Wally’?

Adventurethon distances cheat sheet

Junior: 1km paddle, 10km ride, 3.6km run
Taste: 1km paddle, 10km ride, 3.6km run
Duathlon: 10.4km run, 29km ride, 3.6km run
Enduro: 7km paddle, 22km ride, 7km run
Ultra: 8km paddle, 2.4km run, 8km paddle, 29km ride, 14.1 run