Motu Challenge: Double or quits for Chris Townley

Chris Townley has learned his body is capable of a lot. Tomorrow he hopes it will hold out enough to get him around the Motu Challenge not once but twice.

Townley is attempting to complete the Eastern Bay of Plenty multisport race on his own and then as part of the organised race. He will start at 8.30pm tomorrow night and finish his own circuit before the rest of the field starts on Saturday morning.

"The lead up has been good - I've done a lot of races as training and four weeks ago I did a practice run and that went all right," Townley, an electrician, said. "It was cold - about -2C at one stage."

During his training he has learned how much physical activity his body can withstand. He has had a water bottle turn to slush while cycling in the middle of the night and has had to follow a possum intent on staying in front of him on singletrack in the forest.

Motu is a race Townley has tackled five times and has finished it just once. He is under no illusions how tough it could be but has set himself up with a support crew to keep him company during the night as much for sanity as for safety.

"I've been lucky with the support I've got," he said. "I'll have someone running, biking and kayaking with me."

His only drawback at the moment is a niggling leg injury which has seen his running curtailed in recent weeks.

The seed was sown back in November, when Townley's coach, Jamie Campbell, raced the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge Extreme Enduro event. That race was eight laps of the 160km course and Townley ended up supporting him for six of those.

When he went public with this challenge he said it was Campbell's feat that inspired him.

"Doing Motu twice has been at the back of my mind for a couple of years. It was in the middle of driving around Lake Taupo six times that I decided to do it. I was inspired by Jamie."

As well as the personal challenge he wants to win a Rotorua Association of Triathletes and Multisport award, which Campbell has won the past three years for crazy efforts.

He is hoping to win the award twice and once Motu is out of the way he will start training for the next challenge, though all he is revealing so far is that it will involve a lot of swimming.

Townley has a back-up plan should the water level on the Waioeka River force organisers to have a rethink. Should they can the kayak leg he will start at 8am tomorrow and complete three laps of the race minus the kayaking.

MOTU CHALLENGE X 1

65km mountainbike

17km run

52km road cycle

27km kayak

8km road cycle

3km run