Leigh's Coast to Coast challenge

Huge congratulations to Leigh for doing the 2010 Coast to Coast

The crew at registration

On 12 and 13 Feb Leigh took part in the two day Coast to Coast multisport event. Leigh has been training for the last 11 months with Jazz and Paul. Paul has done the c2c several times and Jazz (his wife) was supposed to do it with Leigh but a small cycle altercation resulting in a broken arm meant Jazz had to pull out :( bummer.

On Thursday 11th Megan and I flew to Greymouth to support and crew for Leigh. That Thursday was spent milling around at the registration and going to the pre-race buffet dinner.

Day one

Paul and Leigh - start day one

On 12 Feb, the race started in Kumara Beach at 7am with a 3km run to the bikes and then a 55km cycle to Aitken where they stopped at the first official transiton, refueled and them took off on a 33 km mountain run over Goat Pass.

The cycle transition

The crew enjoying some of Betty's biscuits

The moutain run took about 6 hours.

The river run up to Goat Pass

The river run - end of day one

Day one - the finish line

The end of day one was at Klondyke Corner, just out of Arthur's Pass. Total time completed was 9hrs 44 mins.

The weather was beautiful on day one and the support team were loving the beer, coffee, sunshine and people watching. Unfortunately the weather closed in and a severe weather forecast was issued which forced race organisers to alter day two of the race.

Lucky for us we had solid accommodation, but a lot of people camped at Klondyke Corner and got completely drenched in the overnight rain. This meant a lot of competitors pulled out at this point.

Due to heavy rand and strong winds, the kayak leg of day two was moved. This meant the racer's had a 150km cycle ahead of them at the start of day two in the terrible wind and rain. Any person who has been on a bike will know that wind is a cyclists worst enemy.

Day two

I didn't get much of a chance to take any photos at the beginning of day one as rain and camera equipment don't mix very well.

Many people who camped at Klondyke Corner over night decided to pull out but despite the bad weather Leigh and Paul carried on with the race. They started on day two on an altered course at 8am with a 90km cycle to the first transition where they refueled and then carried on the cycle leg for another 50-odd kms. They pretty much cycled from Klondyke Corner to Hagely Park in Christchurch.

First half transition - day two - Waddington.

Another 50km cycle to go!

This was probably the only point that the A1 support team might have come close to being fired as we arrived at the cycle/kayak transition 20 mins late. Ops!

Luckily for us "Team Dragon" had time to let the steam cool down so we all walked away with our heads still attached to our bodies. Yeah!

Unfortunately there was no way we could have gotten their any quicker and thankfully we were not the only support team late for their competitor.

They then kayaked 15km down the Avon River, through Christchurch to the Pleasant Point boat club where they cycled another 10km to Sumner Beach and then ran 100 mtrs over the finish line.

Total distance 243km.....total time to complete...somewhere around 20hrs.

A huge achievement to Leigh and Paul. The Coast to Coast is an extremely difficult event anyway but to have battled those extra elements makes crossing the finish line even all the more joyful and makes your support team that much more proud of you!

The fine print: I'll see you at the start line in 2012!