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Mark your calendar for next year.

Christie Sym / 03.06.2008

The format is welcome as a breath of fresh air in Australia, bridging the gap between the popular 24 - 48 hour events, and Australia’s only expedition race XPD. With entry numbers doubling in 2008, the future of the KEEN race looks bright, and the prospects of it becoming a truly international race are looking good, with entrants from Canada, Brazil, Hong Kong and New Zealand this year. Although I urge all Australian Adventure Racers to consider adding this race to your calendar for 2009, as this is one race format that adds great value to the Australian Adventure Racing Calendar, and we need to get behind it and show our support.

So why is this such a great race format? The staged format of KEEN means that it is open to a much wider range of entrants, and John Jacoby’s course design means that less experienced teams can race in a ranked position to the final finish line, with short course options in place throughout the week. The race covers a fair distance over 5 days (400km or so) but allows teams to sleep most nights, resting and recovering for the next days stage. So I guess you could say that is provides a stepping stone between a 24-48 hour event and a 5-10 day non stop expedition.

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