Coast to Coast buzz still real for Gurney

SKILLS SESSION: Coast to Coast Ambassador Steve Gurney leading a practical skills workshop in rock running and bike bunch riding at Pandora Pond, Napier. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN

Steve Gurney starts getting goosebumps talking about the finish line of the Kathmandu Coast to Coast.

But he's not talking about the nine times he crossed the line first - he's talking about greeting the finishers from 1st to 331st.

When race founder Robin Judkins asked him to be at the finish line a few years back, Gurney thought "I'm going to be exhausted, I'm going to need lots of coffee" as competitors are crossing the line from about 2pm to almost midnight.

However the atmosphere was absolutely buzzing and no coffee was needed.

"It was so satisfying as each competitor came up the finish line and I shook hands with them and some of them want to give you a hug and you can just feel the excitement," he said grinning.

The Coast to Coast ambassador was in Napier this week running a skills session and information evening for those wanting to tackle one of the toughest adventure races in the country.

It takes a special kind of person with possibly a hint of madness to want to run, bike and kayak 243km from Kumara Beach on the West Coast, across the Main Divide to the East Coast finishing in Christchurch.

There is a group of them at Taradale High School - they along with a few older faces gathered to learn from one of multisport's best.

Taradale High School teams successfully raced this year and eight are eyeing up February's race.

Gurney had the group running along the wooden barriers at Pandora Pond, zigzagging up and down tyre steps, practising bunch riding and drills to improve their kayaking technique.

Tom Webb, who is training for his second race, said Gurney gave him new ideas. "Like running with toilet rolls on the bottom of your cap so that you scan the ground more when you are running."

Gurney told the group he was like a "moth to a light bulb" when he first heard about the race.

He wanted to win badly but he came 22nd that first year.

Not to be put off, he doubled his training and tried again coming third. It was on his fifth attempt that Gurney won the race.

He said successful people did not see failure as failure but feedback. It wasn't until he trained smarter that he was able to edge in front of his competitors.

While the older faces in the group remembered some of Gurney's stranger antics, he had the teens in fits of laughter as he detailed some of his "racing" inventions - which looking back now seem slightly ridiculous.

The invention to garner the most attention was the fully enclosed pod - which Gurney actually used in a race, cutting 25 minutes off his last bike split. His laughter gains momentum as he recalls actually competing in the contraption.

"It was a bit of risk . . . I could have crashed in it . . . I shouldn't have in hindsight, but it was just such fun doing it."

Back then support crews were allowed alongside him in that last leg and they sprayed a garden sprayer through the window and into his face to keep him cool.

The pod was later banned from racing.

Gurney used just three of his 20 creations.

"I just invented the other 17 as it was a bit of a psych out and it was a bit of fun to have with the media."

It was also part of his "brand" as his off-the-wall ideas became part of his reputation.

And by unveiling it the night before the race, it unnerved his competitors.

"All I needed was an element of doubt in your mind. It wasn't being a bad sportsman it was about being one step ahead."

It's clear he has many fond memories, some hilarious and some quite gruesome but his focus now is helping others get across that finish line. He coaches, mentors and takes technique clinics giving back to the event that made him a household name.

And he still gets a lot of joy out of it.

"It's so satisfying to see in their eyes the completion, the joy of having got through it all despite the hardship."