Speight Coast to Coast - World Multisport Champs

The Longest Day - The Hardest Day...

The after-effect of the before party???

The Race:
Start: West Coast of South Island New Zealand, on the Beach.
Legs:
3 Km Run
55km Cycle (drafting legal)
33km Mountaint Run (30+ river crossings, few paths, many boulders)
15km Cycle (hilly, no drafting)
0.8km Run to Paddle start.
67km Paddle (Grade 2 whitewater, 30cumes, fast flowing, braided river)
70km Cycle (flat, headwind, no drafting)

Finish: East Coast in Christchurch, NZ, on the Beach.

Bikes lined up for the first transition

So who would have thought of those legs that the toughest would be the first 3km? The gun goes off its up the beach, over the rocks and onto the tar road. Then its a sprint at 3min/km to the bikes for the lightning fastest transition, so that you can get with the fastest pack of cyclist possible. Then if like me you haven't managed to make the first bunch you try for the next 55km into the vicious headwind to catch up to the group ahead - without any success.

After 2hrs the cycle came to end, and it wasn't the easy cruise we had all planned. The riding into transition there's a mass of people - my support crew had a huge South African Flag that they were waving so I easily spotted them and had a fairly quick changeover to my running shoes and grabbing my camelpack. The first 3km of the run were not happiness as the legs got used to running again and I tried to force feed a banana down my throat.

Top of Goat's Pass on the 33km Run section

First river crossing and the cramp twinges were saying hello. I knew the route pretty well for the first few km, so my mission now was to find someone who new the way for the rest of the way. About five of us soon latched onto one of the top local women racers, When she crossed the rivers, we crossed. When she tied her shoelaces we stopped too, when she disappeared into the bushes we did too (hoping it wasn’t for a toilet stop). This worked well for most of the run till she dropped the whole group of us and went on to come 3^rd in the ladies race.

The run was brutal, each time a flatish section came, the Ironman triathletes would hammer along – leaving me gasping and catching up on the rocky river crossing sections. Over the top at Goat’s pass a well positioned camera man sat and waited to record agony, Sunglasses mask the pain.

Down on the tri-bars on the short hilly 15km middle bike section

4 and a half hours later the run ended – and then off to the short middle 15km bike. My support crew did a quick change then had to rush back to the car to overtake me on the road to meet me on the other side of the hilly ride. A short run to down the dirt road to the start of the kayak leg.

The first hour was a bit a battle, my arms felt too tired to lift the paddle and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I think I had a sugar overdose from all the energy bars, Goo, and electrolyte drink - I had been eating all day. I stopped eating and after an hour felt good again.

Gooseberry Stream an hour into the 67km paddle

Into the Gorge Section

Some big waves on the paddle leg.

After going down the river 5 days before I felt pretty confident and took all the right braids to stay with the main river flow. I still had the 4 minute short cut up my sleeve, so after the stream on the right with the power lines and the sharp bluff I took the sharp right channel as most of the water flowed the other way. I told the British guy on my tail to trust me on this one and we paddled on. Coming out just in front of some kiwi paddlers who had past us 40 minutes earlier. I just piped up in my thickest South African accent. “Ja its all about the local knowledge!”

I scraped the nose of my boat on a rock in one of the rapids and took off all the fiberglass I had so carefully put on in the last couple of days. For the rest of the paddle my boat leaked and I had to stop and empty it twice – probably a good thing to keep the legs moving.

After over 5hrs the paddle ended, and I was “gracefully” lifted out of my boat ran up to the bike transitions. It was now pretty damn cold, so I chucked on a thermal and started on the bike leg.

The final bike leg is a mental killer. Straight, flat and into a headwind for 70km. I was passed by a few people but about an hour out a lady passed me and that was the motivation I needed. We dueled all the way to the finish, through red traffic lights, (the cops had gone home about half an hour ago. A late surge and I caught one cyclist a km before the finish line. Last transition, off the bike and down to the beach. Through the banners and all done 243km across a country in 15hrs and 06 minutes. I think the winners did just under 12 hrs – with 157 of the 200 starters finishing within the various cut-offs along the course.

Running into the Finish, Sumner Beach.

Cycle1 2:00:47
Run 4:29:13
Kayak 6:03:45
Cycle2 2:32:44
Place 73 / 205ish
Time 15:06:29