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Words and Images by Jim Culley

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Crouched between towering boulders my body rejuvenates with every breath. I watch the air leave my lungs and explode before me in giant clouds and consider how much cleaner the atmosphere must be in these parts, miles away from our cities’ factories and congested roads. If I was going to put my body through extreme torture by taking part in the most gruelling endurance race of our times then this is certainly the environment in which I would want to do it.

Twenty minutes have passed since being ferried by helicopter to my current vantage point on the Southern Alps where I am set to witness the first of the 2013 Speights Coast to Coast ‘longest day’ competitors make their way through a veritable landmine of boulders, across a rushing river and up to the highest section of the mountain run. A race official perched above me suddenly barks the two words I have been waiting to hear, “runner coming”. Seconds later a lean muscular figure appears between the grey masses roughly fifty metres below. I squint attempting to make out a race number but his stealthy movements prevent me from gaining an accurate reading as he dodges and weaves upwards and onwards. The speed and grace of the man navigating this tricky terrain is astounding and before long he is dashing across the slippery riverbed

a few feet before me. His face is painted with an expression of steely determination and the muscles in his legs beat against the skin with every subtle movement. As quickly as he appeared he vanishes again into the dense bush behind me. I pause as my heart thumps against my chest. Wait a minute what was his race number? I had been so captivated by the man’s sheer grit and rock-hopping aptitude that I had failed to take note of who he actually was. Digital camera to the rescue! A few clicks later and the bold red number 70 tells me I had just witnessed twenty-six year old specialist runner Braden Currie hurtling like a man possessed towards a finish line he would eventually cross in first place over 170 kilometres later just five minutes and forty-six seconds in front of five-time event winner and 2013 runner-up Richard Ussher.

Winning the Coast to Coast is a feat considered possible by a select few seasoned athletes. Actually completing the 243 km transition from Kumara beach on the west coast to Sumner beach on the east is a task that torments the mind of the average competitor who enters. Being an open competition, limited only by a maximum of 800 competitors each year, anyone over the age of eighteen with the $1000 entry fee, access to a road cycle and kayak, and friends or family members crazy enough to

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Linking the North & South Islands of New Zealand

deal with them at their absolute worst (by acting as support crew) may enter. So it comes as no surprise that competitor résumés read anything from “thanks Icebreaker and Bivouac” to “middle-aged fat bastard” and “157th ranked synchronised swimmer in Khazakstan”.

Your average competitor will enter the event because it is pencilled in on their bucket list and missing that all-important tick. As well as coming up with a personality defining quote on their entry form they will hone their bodies over the weeks or months leading up to the event, training and perfecting their techniques for each of the stages. When the time comes and they find themselves standing on the charcoal sand at Kumara beach, eyes fixed on a beaming Robin Judkins with race horn in hand; they will feel the adrenalin and excitement coursing through their veins and know they made the right decision. Over the next one or two days they will push their bodies to the brink of collapse, taking caution to minimise lactic acid build-up while maintaining high enough energy levels to push forward. Their body or mind may tell them to stop, but if they are able to drive through the pain, fight their way to the end and eventually cross the finish line at Sumner beach then the cold Speights and shortened bucket-list will make the journey well worth it.

Who knows, maybe next year is your year.

MOUNTAIN TRAINER MIDLADIES

MOUNTAIN TRAINER MEN’S

MOUNTAIN TRAINER LADIES

MOUNTAIN TRAINER MIDMEN’S

www.salewa.comsalewa@bobo.co.nz

TOUGH FOOTWEAR FOR TOUGH TERRAIN.