Brave battle already won

By JAMIE TROUGHTON
A year ago today, Karen Holmes was eyeing Christmas Eve through a haze of morphine, her slight frame broken and punctured.
Christmas Day brought a fifth operation in a week. Family and friends maintained a vigil at her Waikato Hospital bedside amid fears her right leg might have to be amputated.
Holmes was on a training ride when she was clipped by a truck on the approach to the Harbour Bridge in Tauranga.
The articulated truck's back wheels ran right over her. Her shoulder was shattered, she broke her collar bone and a couple of ribs, broke her sacrum and hip, dislocated her knee, broke her ankle and a bone in her foot.
Incredibly that wasn't the worst injury - her femoral artery had a jagged tear in it and her blood pressure was dropping alarmingly.
A year later, Holmes is still feeling a little ragged, though for entirely different reasons.
In the last three weeks, she's run 21km over sub-alpine terrain from Whakapapa to Turoa. She's kayaked 67km down the Waimakariri River in Canterbury and has cycled halfway around Lake Taupo in freezing winds.
In the back of the plucky 44-year-old's mind is a chilly West Coast beach in February and the start of the Coast to Coast adventure race.
"I crewed for friends in the Coast to Coast two years ago and that sowed the seed," Holmes said. "But I hated the thought of crewing again - I just wanted to do it all myself."
This will be the first time she's attempted the Coast to Coast, although the second time she's entered.
Her competitive ambitions were dented, but only postponed by the horrific events on that blustery Saturday in December 2004, events which remain sharp in her memory.
Traffic was stationery as she rode up to the bridge, having been for a training ride along Route K. As she was riding past the truck, it moved as it merged in the traffic.
"One minute there was room, the next minute there wasn't. I don't know if I clipped it or lost my balance, but all of a sudden there was no room. I went down in between the last two wheels. I remember the wheels coming straight over me, although I flipped over so they missed my head."
Holmes is adamant it was nothing more than a freak accident but it wasn't so freakish that she is still alive.
Following several cars behind was leading Tauranga urology surgeon Mark Fraundorfer.
"He basically saved my life. He couldn't understand why my pulse was so low until he turned me over and saw where I was losing so much blood."
She was airlifted to Waikato Hospital, spent five days in intensive care and another fortnight in post-operative care, before being transferred back to Tauranga Hospital.
But the English-born former track-work jockey - who worked for Tauranga racing trainer Jim Pender when she moved to New Zealand eight years ago - wasn't sitting around moping.
Early in January, a letter arrived from Coast to Coast organiser Robin Judkins asking if she'd like to transfer the $835 entry fee to the 2006 event.
"I was gutted because I was only six weeks away from the Coast to Coast but straight away I knew I was going to give it a crack next year.
"A few of the doctors had done it before and thought maybe I should wait another year but it's been a great motivator."
She set herself a target of being back on her bike by July 1 - but by May 28 she'd been for her first cycle, albeit an extremely nervous venture with friends.
Kayaking has been tough with her injured shoulder and the damage to her right thigh has caused problems running and biking. She still needs an operation to remove scar tissue from her thigh but is waiting until after February.
Physiotherapist Andrea Burch and osteopath Jan Green have since become close friends of Holmes - hardly surprising given how much time she's spent in their company. Green is even crewing for Holmes during the Coast to Coast.
She's also had incredible support from her sister Sue and mum Celine, the tight-knit family all sharing their Pyes Pa lifestyle block.
Last night Holmes went out for dinner with seven other friends - all but Green she's met since her accident.
"They say good things can come out of this, for me it's meeting people. I've had such great support. My family and friends have just been incredible. If you're surrounded by positive people, you can't help but get better."