Endurance Quest Lohja will gather Europe's best endurance athletes in Finland on June 26–28, 2026.
Endurance Quest Lohja will gather Europe's best endurance athletes in Finland on June 26–28, 2026.
The flagship competition of Finnish adventure racing, the legendary Endurance Quest Finland, continues for the fourth consecutive year in the international Adventure Race World Series (ARWS). Lohja has been selected as the host city for the European Series race to be held in June 2026.
Endurance Quest Finland, organized 12 times since 2002 and highly respected internationally, will be held in Lohja on June 26–28, 2026. The competition is organized by the Espoo-based specialty club Northern Adventure Team, which actively develops the sport and participates in international Adventure Race World Series competitions.
Lohja was selected from several candidate options as the host city for the ARWS European Series race due to the city's activity, the beautiful Lake Lohjanjärvi, and the very high quality of the orienteering maps, among other reasons. Lauri Hollo, the course director of Endurance Quest Lohja and captain of the Northern Adventure Team, is excited that the race will be held in Lohja.
"Lake Lohjanjärvi, the largest lake in Uusimaa, and the rest of Lohja's magnificent nature, with its ridges and old forests, offer truly interesting opportunities for creating a physically, navigationally, and visually engaging route," says course director Hollo.
"The diverse waterways of Lake Lohjanjärvi, in particular, add a special flavor to the competition. However, it is inherent in the nature of the sport that we will not reveal anything about the route at this stage," Hollo continues.
Juha-Pekka Lehmus, the Director of Education and Culture for the host city Lohja, is also excited that the city of Lohja gets to be part of a highly international series.
"We are thrilled that we can showcase Lohja's versatile and almost limitless outdoor recreation opportunities to the international and domestic adventure racing family. Through the event and the image and video materials spreading globally via the ARWS network, we will also gain a lot of international visibility. The over 1.5 million social media hits reached by the summer 2025 event show that the sport is extremely interesting," Lehmus states.
Harri Hollo, the race director of Endurance Quest Lohja, is also enthusiastic about the event coming to Lohja. He reminds us that when the legendary X-kaato adventure racing competition, held 25 times in Finland, was first organized in 1999, it took place specifically in Lohja.
"Experience-based exercise or extreme sports in nature, whatever one wishes to call it, is clearly growing, even among young people. We believe that the terrain of the Lohja region and Lake Lohjanjärvi with its surprises can offer many opportunities for the internationally growing genre of nature sports," says Hollo.
The Race Distance Will Be Approximately 250 Kilometers
The length of the race route in the Endurance Quest Lohja race will be approximately 250 kilometers. The winning time is expected to be about 24 hours. The final details of the disciplines and the lengths of the legs will be revealed to the teams approximately two weeks before the competition. The teams will receive the race route and competition maps on the morning of the first competition day in June, two hours before the start.
Course director Lauri Hollo will not reveal anything about the course or the legs at this stage.
"It is in the nature of the sport that everything is kept secret. This ensures fair treatment for both Finnish and foreign teams. The final route will be shaped by various plans on the drawing board during the winter and spring, based on field research conducted in the terrain," the course director agrees to reveal.
Adventure Racing is Booming Globally – People Seek Experiences in Nature
The popularity of adventure racing is booming globally. The international Adventure Race World Series calendar includes over 70 races annually across five continents. Most recently, the international sports federation and the Adventure Race World Series announced the sport's first-ever Youth World Championships for competitors in the under-18 and under-25 categories. The first-ever Youth World Championships will be held in Canada at the end of July. Endurance Quest Lohja offers an excellent opportunity for those heading to the World Championships as well.
Endurance Quest returned to the international race calendar in August 2023, when the race was held in Espoo. The competition was also held in Espoo in 2024. In August 2025, Endurance Quest served as the ARWS series' European Championship final for the first time in the sport's history, with the European Championship being contested in Savo, in the areas of Savonlinna, Sulkava, Puumala, Rantasalmi, and Juva.
Adventure racing are long-duration endurance sports events lasting from three hours up to 10 days. In the competitions, a team consists of a four-person squad. Internationally, the most popular team format is a team composed of one woman and three men. The team must include representatives of both genders.
The main disciplines in adventure racing are mountain biking, paddling, and running (=trekking). The main disciplines usually account for about 90 percent of the competition time. Competitions often include other disciplines because the organizers are free to design the length and nature of the race to suit the host country and terrain. Other disciplines include, for example, swimming, sailing, horseback riding, roller skating, and various rope tasks. All disciplines appearing in adventure racing are performed by the athlete and the team using their own strength and technique.
Map reading skills are a crucial part of the sport in adventure racing. In competitions, teams advance on each leg from control point (CP) to control point using a map. The mode of progression, for example, from paddling to mountain biking, changes at a transition area (TA). Map scales vary from 1:5000 to as much as 1:100000. Various special maps, such as orienteering maps, are also common in competitions.
Entry opens December 14th 2025 and full information on the race is available at https://www.endurancequest.org/
