A sapping 243km — ‘awesome’

ROUGH WATER: Gisborne’s Jo Teesdale negotiates some of the scarier stuff in a Waimakariri rapid. Pictures supplied

George Williams fell out of his kayak twice in the Waimakariri. Jo Teesdale was swept off her feet crossing a river in the Southern Alps. Different spills, similar result . . . wet and freezing. In both cases it was straight into the compulsory safety gear bag and on with an extra layer.

The Gisborne pair returned home this week from the Coast to Coast multisport race with great memories and a similar post-mortem on the event . . . it was awesome.

To translate, that’s “awesome” in the language of those for whom spending two days running, cycling and kayaking 243 kilometres across the South Island’s mountains, rivers and plains is the ultimate fun.

Both entered the iconic C2C as a bucket-list personal challenge. They achieved everything they wanted. Williams was 12th open man in the two-day race, 19th man overall of 116, and 21st overall, while veteran Teesdale was third in the classic women (50-59) division, 31st woman and 97th overall of 170 solo competitors.

Will they do it again? Veteran Teesdale doubts she will — “I have done what I wanted to do. It was a matter of ‘go and enjoy it’ . . . and I did”.

Williams would love to do it again. He took a relaxed approach to the race and was happy with his 14 hours and 40 minutes, but knows he could have come closer to his 14-hour target.

“I was a bit gutted to not make 14 hours but at the same time pretty happy with my first effort.”

Pretty happy? His spectacular three hours 54 minutes through the mountain run on Day 1 was the third-fastest time overall and rocketed him up from about midfield on the bike to hold sixth place overall overnight.

The 31-year-old describes it as “an awesome day”.

“I felt at home on the run course, which is as much a clamber as a run.”

As a farmer, he is familiar with covering rough terrain and feels many competitors might not have done enough specific training to deal with it.

“I would love to do that run again”.

The challenges: WilliamsHe put no extra pressure on himself to hold on to the leaders on Day 2 — “I knew I could only do what I could do. The river was going to be a challenge.”

That challenge came early. About 10km into the 67km river leg, his rudder pedals came adrift.

“It was a bit of a nightmare.”

He had to stop and get out on the bank a couple of times to fix the problem.

“It probably cost me 15 or 20 minutes but you have to expect malfunctions when relying on equipment.”

Then came the spills — first in the infamous “rock garden”, the second on a sharp turn where he was upended by an eddy line. After the second swim, he put on his paddle jacket to cut the wind chill — “that was a saviour”.

He was happy with his five hours 33 minutes on the river, effectively five-hour pace. The final leg, a 70km cycle to New Brighton Beach, was a “grind” into a head wind. But he had the benefit of a bunch and they worked together to the finish.

Loved the six-hour run: TeesdaleTeesdale managed to stay clear of incident, injury, puncture and damage over the two days, except for her one swim in the Deception River when she and another competitor were swept off their feet. She stopped in Goat Pass to put on warm gear.

Any aches and pains? None, and looking back, the 55-year-old orchardist feels she could have been a little faster. She loved her six-hour-seven-minute run. The cycle legs were less enjoyable. The opening ride went OK but she had to go it alone over the final 70km leg to avoid blowing up in the fast-moving bunches.

She stayed out of trouble on the river, thanks to a raised water level softening the rapids and the assistance of a 15-time C2C veteran who guided her through some of the trickier stuff until he fell out himself — it was typical of a friendly “team” effort among competitors.

The last 15km stretch was a long haul through the Waimakariri’s braids but she managed an excellent 5h 12m split, the fastest of her rankings at 51st kayaker overall. On the way down the river, Teesdale was passed by team kayaker Amy Spence, of Gisborne, who was on a mission from the rear of the field after her women’s team had a slow first day in the mountains.

Spence also caught Williams just before the end of the river leg. She had clocked four hours 57 minutes on the water, the fastest of the three from Gisborne and a creditable 22nd fastest of the 52 team kayakers — as Williams described it, “a spectacular paddle”.

Longest Day, perfect year for MansonFormer Wairoa athlete Sam Manson’s third place in the world championship Longest Day was his best result in five starts in the individual open. With his Wairoa parents along as support crew, the 25-year-old tracked professionals Sam Clark and Braden Currie the whole distance and finished in 11:37, just 35 minutes behind world champion Clark.

It was his perfect year, a considerable improvement on his previous fourth and this time he was not plagued by a broken chain or kayak spills of past races.

After a stint in the air force, Manson is now an outdoor instructor based in Christchurch and has more time to train and compete in endurance and adventure races.