One good reason to have three (or more) children

The Aviernos family have been in the adventure racing community for a few years and we’ve seen the children growing up as they’ve gone from just being on dad Alec’s support crew to participating, competing and winning adventure races and single-discipline events. For the first time Alec will do a race with three of his four children – fulfilling a long-time dream. 

This weekend an entirely Aviernos-family team will race as an official four-person team at the Kinetic Full Moon 120-kilometre race in the Free State’s Bethlehem area. Dad Alec (44) is joined by sons Greg (18) and David (16) and daughter Ruth (14). Ruth will pack her own small-size climbing harness to ensure that she does not miss out on the 60-metre abseil.

And there’s no need for this team to recruit ‘outsiders’ to be their supporters. Mom Rhona and youngest daughter Kirsten will be on hand for moral support and encouragement (Kinetic Full Moon is an unassisted race so teams do not need support crew).

Alec has been a very patient, sporty father as he’s been waiting for his children to get older so that they can all race together.

“It has been a long-time dream of mine to be able to compete in a long 24 hour adventure race as a family. Our objective is to finish strong and enjoy the event. We start racing on Saturday at 12h00 and need to be finished by noon on Sunday,” he says.