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Author: Lisa Roberts Read Time: 2 mins  I’m Lisa Roberts, 46 year old, a retired pro triathlete and avid endurance junkie. I’m also a landscape architect and a cat lover. I recently participated in the Kathmandu Coast to Coast Multisport World Championship, located on the South Island of New Zealand. The race offers two day solo options, relay options, and run section only option. I opted for appropriately named “The Longest Day” version which includes 243 kilometers of technical mountain running, cycling and kayaking down class 2 rapids through canyons that you must complete in, you guessed it, a single day! Here's how it went ...  This truly all day adventure is comprised of a point to point course that covers 33km of running, 140km of cycling and 70km of kayaking. We began on the west coast of the South Island at Kumara Junction with a 2km run up the beach to our bikes. Then a 55km ride through the beautiful countryside of New Zealand until we reached our main 30.5K mountain run that goes up and over Goats Pass and graciously includes is a combination of rock scrambling, bouldering and 19 swift river crossings just for the fun of it!
From there we ride another 15km to the kayak at the put in of the Waimakariri River within Arthur's Pass National Park. The paddling of this course is very technical and tricky to “read the river” to have the best lines for speed, but not flip your boat on one of the nonstop rapids or bluff turns. Last but not least was the 70km bike ride into Christchurch's New Brighton Beach. This was one of the straightest and head-windiest roads I’ve been on. Of course, in true Kiwi fashion, they make you run up the beach over sandy stairs before reaching the finish line.  This race has been on my bucket list for 20 years; my husband Jon and I did it as a relay in 2020, but I always wanted to come back and attempt it solo. I wasn’t disappointed in the challenge and learning experience! I also love the customary act of picking up a small stone at the start along the west coast, carrying it with you throughout the race, then throwing it into the ocean on the east coast ... a simple but unique sense of accomplishment!
The biggest challenge was the kayaking portion by far. I’ve never trained for racing kayaks and the river features there are unique, challenging and dangerous. I had to make a last minute boat change 4 days before the race because it was very apparent I wasn’t going to learn how to handle the boat I had rented. Luckily a few other racers also needed to change boats, so we did a little swap-a-roo and we all came out good! This reinforces the camaraderie of the adventure/endurance racing community!  Will I do this race again? Not likely as a solo racer. Maybe if someone wants to do a relay team though! Will I remember the experience forever and regale folks with stories about it for all eternity? Absolutely!   Journal - The Longest Day From Coast To CoastComments are closed.
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