"Then a group of us decided to do the Coast to Coast - we started training about 18 months, two years before the event started, and we did other events like the Motu Challenge and the Maungatautari Mission."
I suppose it's a bit of an advantage knowing the course.
The group did the two day Coast to Coast in 2012 and then Kel and his son Josh returned the following year and completed the Longest Day, the Coast to Coast in one day.
While that was the achievement of an ambition, it didn't stop Kel competing and also putting his hand up to organise his local event.
"I am going to do the individual event, but I'm probably not fit enough. But I like the challenge of it - it's something completely different from work.
They are all good people and it's a really friendly atmosphere."
He has the advantage of knowing the course well.
"I run the coast course sometimes during the year and paddle in the harbour and ride the mountain bike tracks there are around here - I suppose it's a bit of an advantage knowing the course.
"But if I was doing, say, the Motu Challenge I'd go down two or three weeks before and do a practice on the bits you can do to familiarise myself, so it's probably just the comfortable factor because it's on your doorstep."
Now 52, he says he'd like another crack at the Coast to Coast.
"That hinges on whether the body stays together and the time constraints - maybe I should have been doing this when I was 30 - but I was doing other things then."
He says he goes out to have fun and, while he is a competitive person, doesn't set himself goals.
"I just go and do it - I don't get too carried away with the technicalities of it all."
Kel's wife Simone will also be on one of the start lines on Saturday morning - of the 21km run from Waihi Beach to Waihi.