AVA Centurion Achievement Challenge

The AVA Centurion Challenge rewards walkers who commit to walking 100 American Volkssport Association sanctioned walks in a calendar year. Other volkssport events -- bikes, swims, skis, also count. This challenge debuts in 2013 and can be earned yearly. AVA-sanctioned walks are 10 kilometers (6.2) miles in length, with some offering a shorter 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) option.

Participants in this award program must be enrolled as an AVA Associate Member. That cost is $25 per year for individual or $30 per year for family. The membership comes with other benefits, such as a subscription to The American Wanderer and discounts on AVA merchandise.

Once you have a membership number, then you can register for the AVA Centurion Achievement Award at a cost of $25 per year. Print and mail the form to AVA with payment. AVA Centurion Registration Form

You will receive the Centurion Achievement Record Book by mail to begin recording your walks as of the first of the challenge year.

You must register by Sept. 30 of the year in which you are earning the challenge award. For 2013, you would need to register by Sept. 30, 2013. If you register Oct. 1, you would instead get the 2014 Centurion record book.

To find AVA-sanctioned walks, use the AVA event search page or our state-by-state links.

The walks may be hosted "traditional events" where clubs staff a registration, start and finish with checkpoints along the route. The cost to get an event stamp for a walk is usually $3 as sof 2012.
Step by Step on an AVA Traditional Walk

The AVA also has over 1500 Year-Round or Seasonal Walks in the US. These are map-guided walks. You register at a self-start box, pay the IVV credit fee, take a map, and complete walk.
How to Walk a Year-Round AVA Walk

At the end of either kind of walk, you stamp your record book with the event's IVV stamp. The IVV stamp for each event includes the year, and only the stamps for the challenge year will count. For example, you can't count a 2013 stamp in the 2014 book.

Other technicalities: You can walk an event more than once, paying the appropriate fees (usually $3 per event stamp), and count the same route multiple times during the year. If you have forgotten your Centurion record book, you can stamp one of the AVA insert cards to include with your book when you redeem it. However, you can't handwrite the event information in the record book, it must be the official stamp.

You can redeem your books as soon as you complete 100 events, by mailing them to the American Volkssport Association. You must send them by Feb. 15 of the next year in order to get the award. For example, Feb. 15, 2014 for the 2013 award.

Your reward will be a Centurion patch and annual award.