Coast to Coast 1990

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COAST TO COAST 1990 Rex Benbrook The first pain I suffered in doing the Coast to Coast was signing the cheque for $306.00 as my entry fee. Anita shelled out the gold in order to race. Incidently approximately 550 others also parted with funds. This was the third time I'd raced and Anita's first, so I gave advice on training. The first step SPEIGHTS was to work out a training schedule. This was a SREIGHIS simple matter of using my value for money INDIVIDUAL triathlon equation TIVINIAL Time Training = Entry Fee This means after doing 17 hours 49 minutes training one is not going to die but will relive every minute of the race for years to come. Race Day 1: Standing on Kumara Beach at 7.00 a.m. Bang! : Anita and Rex just before the start oft the race. Hoping I'd been shot I started running with everyone else up the beach. After 10 metres I home. Finishing is finishing, but having your realised I wasn't hit. After 2 km of running to hand shaken by Robyn Judkins for drinking a my bike thoughts of a revised equation were can of Speights is a memory to cherish. being shut from my mind. The only thing that When Anita arrived it wasn't with a final kept me going at this stage was the fact that She commented on the day's events sprint. Anita hadn't passed me. how saying very hard they were - or words to that The 66 km cycle section was easier than I effect. expected as Ilatched onto a big bunch which Day 2 7.30 a.m. dynamite wouldn't have shifted me from. I didn't sit down at the transition for the 26 km 3.2.1 Go! mountain running section, but started up the Ahead of me was a 16 Km and Anita - Deception River at a slow jdog which is a started before me as her race cycle number was slowj jog feeling like a dog. lower. The cycle went quickly, so I was into my Two hours later thej jdogging had eased. I kayak and off down the Waimakariri River for walked up the climb onto Goat Pass. Any 76 km. 5 minutes later I saw her 100 metres dreams I had of making a dash for the front and closing, 27 metres and closing and were painful to think about. I wasn't going to closing..goodbye. It was a good thing to win this day's event so decided to save myself paddle a kayak half the weight and nearly twice for the next day. as fast as Anita's. The river was very low, which meant slower water, more effort, more rocks, Jdogging down from Goat Pass in the heat of greater chance of breaking my boat. All went the mid-day sun was bad enough, but being smoothly apart from a few nervous moments passed like I was standing still was worse. while passing a few fellow paddlers who were Worse than that was the thought that. Anita still trying to tame their boats. could be the next woman to pass. 70 km is a long way on a bike with a sore bum, At the end of the Mingha River people clapped knackered legs and a head wind. Its actually and cheered - now only 31 km of road to the twice as far as you would ever want to cycle. end of day 1. For a hundred metres, Ifelt like This section didn't have a nice big bunch to get John Walker winning the mile, then reality hit dragged along by, but a series of small bunches full of cyclists who must havel been on steroids to keep up the speed they were going. Thel last 10 km is always the worst, grinding through Christchurch to Sumner Beach. This time I was really getting Value for Money even my ears hurt. Pain fades on the run down to thel beach to Robyn. Judkins, who's still trying to give away the Speights, and is replaced with a feeling of accomplishment. Anita finished the race and within 10 minutes was talking of how and where she would improve her time shel had caught the bug. Anita finished 229th in a time of 17 hours 40 minutes 2 seconds. : finished 172nd in a time of 15 hours 31 minutes 35 seconds. As I was an hour slower and nearly 3 times further back in thei field than my last effort I have revised the equation with respect to age and objective; Training time = (Entry Fee)2