New iron-man course ‘a knock-out’

Press, 8 December 1982, Page 64

New iron-man course ‘a knock-out’

Robin Judkins, a 33-year-old entrepreneur, of Wanaka. and Mark Donovan, aged 20, a Nelson track cutter with the Forest Service, cycled, ran, tramped and kayaked from Kumara beach to Sumner last weekend. “The course is a knock-out — it's brilliant,” said Judkins of his brainchild, which will be used for the Macpac Equipment Coast to Coast multi-discipline race on February 26-27. A group of 13 made this initial sortie over the course, which involved cycling from Kumara to Otira; tramping the Great Divide, through Goat Pass; kayaking down the Waimakariri River from Klondike Corner to the gorge bridge; then riding again to Sumner. But their experiences, and Judkins' expectation of a low river in February, have meant that a 15km ride will be faced by the kayakist to the new start point at Mount White Bridge. The exercise at the weekend was not done as a competition, nor were all the 13 “trialists" necessarily interested in contesting all four stages. So with several stops which will not be made

in the “real" event, the two finishers took just under 24 hours. Judkins expects the best competitors in February to take about 16 hours, and he picked Donovan as one of them. “He's brilliant; a very, very good canoeist; moving in the mountains is his cup of tea, and he was probably the fastest cyclist there." Judkins speculated that the first bike ride would take about Ihr 45min, and while the fastest group in the second stage at the week-end took six hours, he thought that five hours would be more likely. “But it is nearly impossible to run up the Deception River, on the West Coast side, as we were constantly having to cross and recross the stream to avoid the bush. Also, we were always climbing over boulders, some of them as big as a house." he said. But Judkins said the Mingha River section on the east coast had a track'all the way and was thus very fast. The cycle and kayak paddle in the third stage would take a total of about 6hr 30min, he thought, while the final ride to Sumner should be. covered in under 2 hours.