Skip the writing in bold if you want to just see the race day report. Before the report I will quickly cover the year leading into it.

12 months ago I was standing at the gorge bridge. I was fulfilling a new role at the Kathmandu Coast to Coast, assisting the media team with coverage of the elite race. I watched Alex Hunt and Hamish Elliot get off the water with such extreme determination and passion, all I could think was that “I don’t have that in me anymore”. Meaning that extra hunger to really really want to win this race. To desperately seek that top spot. At that moment I decided I probably wouldn’t race again, at least not wholeheartedly for the win. I had so much passion to win this race for so long, that winning it in 2023 really did shut a few things down mentally. But to even race again at the elite end, I needed a reason still. A reason to train the amount that is required for this race and push hard enough on the day to go for a top spot. I can do that at other events that are new to me or at least haven’t completed so often. But events that I have done more than 10 times, require something else to convince my brain as to why. May 2025, was the first time since that win in 2023 that I finally came up with an answer that actually made sense. Partly, I just needed a mental break from training and racing and partly I needed to realign. I’m 34 years old, I have spent the last 15 years training my body, allowing it to adapt, gaining so much experience in endurance racing and the C2C race. It would be a shame to just stop. I don’t want to get to 50 years old and wish I had done the race a few more times while in good form. And most importantly, I do love the sport and the community. I don’t love that suffering down South Eyre Road, but I do love the adventures and the personal development you get to experience every year on the journey to race day. I enjoy sharing training days and race day with like minded people all who are thinking the same with similar goals, to just improve and be better.

So, in May 2025 I began training again. But then I quickly got sick and spent the next 5 weeks trying to manage it before completing the Mount Difficulty 25km mountain race in early June in below average health. I knew I needed to get my running back to good form if I want to have a good C2C race. Since 2020 I had been managing Haglund’s Syndrome in my left heel so running speed had taken a dive since then. I had finally figured out how to manage the injury and was able to get back into consistent running (so long as I didn’t get sick!). Late June, I was on a plane to USA to watch and support kiwi mate Daniel Jones at the Western States 100 miler endurance run. I flew over with Topsport, Len, Kate and Kristin to team up to watch the famous spectacle. Incredibly, Dan had asked/offered me a few months back if I was happy to be a pacer for him. I was honored and excited to give that a go, despite never having been a pacer before, and certainly not at an elite event with such a fast runner. Come race day I had done my best to prepare with the time I had. I was pacing from 100km to 126km. Not too long a distance but in the heat of the day. It was close to 40 degrees Celsius, section was Foresthill to Ruck-a-Chucky river crossing. Initially I found the pace incredibly easy, Dan was 100km into his race and the first 5km of this segment for me was all steady downhill. I was determined to be a good pacer, but I didn’t really know what to do other than remind him of where all the remote aids stations were (I’d written it all on my arm but turned out all the distances were all a bit off!), help refill his flasks and ice bandana and offer words of support without annoying him too much either. About 18kms in things started heating up and I realised I needed another gel (I’d run out, quite sure I maybe have dropped a few along the way 🤦) to help me get through to the end, next aid station was only 2km away. In this station I was so focused on helping Dan with his drink and ice refills, as fast as possible, that I totally forgot to grab myself a gel. The final 5km to the end of my stage was bad, I went from cruising to hanging on by a thread, I couldn’t decide if it was because Dan had sped up or if I was fading from the lack of fuel and the high heat, either way, it wasn’t good. I do hope that me suffering made Dan feel better about his own pace at least! An incredible experience that only made me want to improve my running more as I was a little bit embarrassed by it too. Dan holding that strong pace so deep into the ultra shows why he is one of the best.

Once back in NZ in July I ended up sick AGAIN, then squeezed in a 10 week training block to get ready for a 4 day stage race in China with my team. Home for a week, then back to China for a 4 day road cycle race in Tibet at high altitude then home to recover for a week or so. I waited a few weeks for the right signs that I had recovered enough from all that to finally begin my C2C training block late October. From then the block went pretty smooth! Although only 3.5 months of consistency, it was quality. No sickness or injury just balancing the training load and adapting my training based on fatigue. I arrived at the race in a healthy state. Great taper, no rolled ankles, fresh and well tuned, in a great mindset with not too much pressure.

Kathmandu Coast to Coast 2026 Report:

Stage 1a – 2.2km run

My heart rate was sitting around 130bpm before the gun went off, how good are race nerves! Off the mark I am near the front which is a nice position to be in, I heard mid pack was a game of bullrush. Still loads of people pushing through me to the front, a quick read of the bib names to identify who they are, some I know, most I’ve never heard. Credit to those who stuck around the rest of the day but so many are flogging themselves at max heart rate for no good reason. I’m feeling slightly more comfortable than previous years at this pace which is great but the final 300m always hurts the most as your body and mind becomes increasingly aware of the day ahead. I arrive into the TA in around 10th but get onto the road on my bike in around 3rd. This is obviously part due to a nice bike rack position close to the road but also a clean shoe change. Average speed for the run: 3:26min km pace (around 3:15min km on the flats).

Stage 1b – 55km road cycle

Our group settles into place reasonably well, I can only guess but I think there was around 15 of us. After a bit of fluffing around we end up rotating and sharing the load surprisingly well, first time I’ve experienced that in this ride in the while. Our speed was good but nothing substantial, ticking along at around 38kmph on the straights that are ever so slightly uphill. Then 20mins later the cohesion was lost. This mostly happened because other riders weren’t holding wheels close enough, allowing for big gaps to form, and/or sitting on the front too long or pushing too hard which also creates gaps, which equates to surges, this then gets some of the lads scared and they skip a turn which then means everyone skips a turn (because absolutely no one wants to work harder than they need to), we end up single file and some poor sucker ends up stuck on the front as no one rolls through. A few of us including myself try our best to get it rolling again, this basically means having to take the gaps that have been created, take an extra turn to get things rolling smoothly again. Unfortunately there are still a few who purposely do the opposite. Then we were suddenly caught by a chasing bunch, I can’t remember exactly but I will take a guess that it was around 25km into this stage. Our original lead group had averaged around 39kmph until this point, so the bunch that caught us must have been humming along! From what I’ve heard, it was thanks to only a couple of guys who hammered it alone on the front of their group, and the rest of that bunch sat in for the ride. I can only assume those guys had made it their life goal to make the front bunch without any consideration to the remainder of the day, good on them, I do wonder how the rest of their day went. Anyway, now we are a large bunch of around 40 riders including the top females: Deb Lynch, Hannah Lund and Thea Taylor (there may have been more but they are the only ones I got the chance to say hi too). Between here and the end of the stage it was just a matter of convincing people to roll through even through no one wanted to. I regularly hear the argument that since I’m a contender for the podium (including anyone else in the vicinity) that that somehow earns me and my some of my honest peers the right to drag everyone else to the start of the mountain run. I’m actually not that good at cycling, I’m good at multisport. And just like everyone else, we are trying to get to that finish line in the best possible shape and speed and I also want to avoid working any harder than I need to. Precisely the same mindset as everyone else at the start line and in this large bunch. Thankfully we have a few keen souls willing to work but there is a large number of men who finished in the top 20 that wouldn’t have gone near the front, while a few who did possibly spent way too much time up there and perhaps ruined their day at the benefit of others. It’s about balance, right. This is not a cycle race, no one is working for anyone, we are all dealing with the impeding doom of fatigue and pain as we get closer to finish line. My annual rant is not about making more people do more work, it’s about ensuring that you know your day isn’t any more or any less important than mine. Do a fair amount of work unless you have a very very good reason for it.

Stage 2 – 30.5km mountain run

The big bunch arrives at Aikens Corner, despite most of the group wanting to claim a medal for first to this transition area in the final 1km, I manage to ease my way into around 10th position when hoping off the bike. Aiming for a smooth, calm and efficient transition, keeping the heart rate and stress levels nice and steady. My crew are ready and we execute it perfectly.

I leave the transition zone in around 15th, straight away settling into my own speed and heart rate limit, glancing at my watch every 20 secs to ensure I didn’t do anything stupid. Thankfully my legs are feeling okay and I slowly start passing the odd person on the way to the first river crossing. By the time I reach the trail around 3km into the whole run I am sitting around 7th position, trying my best to not get too carried away with pushing too hard. My lines are ok, but I haven’t been in these rocks for a while and everything looks slightly different at this speed.

At the 6th crossing I make a rushed decision and tried to cross the river where I haven’t typically crossed before, next second I’m up to my neck in the water and my foot is stuck. I wrestle my way out of it, cross the river, look back, and see that the only person who saw my wee incident was Tasmanian Robbie Hunt, it’s been pretty typical of me over the years to make a fool of myself in front of him!

After that thankfully all my lines were back on the mark and found myself back into a good flow. Around Doreen Creek (14km), Robbie Hunt and Ollie Palmer were still on my heels. The 3 of us were around 1min 10secs down on the group ahead of Dean, Max and Marty (4th, 3rd and 2nd at that time) and were were 8min down on Hamish in 1st.

From there it is about 3.5km of steeper rock scrambling to get to Goat Pass, again I was happy to hit all my lines, although I did manage to slip on a greasy rock and hit the deck pretty hard. No damage but my instincts had caused my right hamstring to move a bit too fast and had set it off into a cramp momentarily. On the final creek scramble to the hut I was joined by Will Hand who over took me to the Pass but I stayed close by. The weather was perfect, clear skies and not too hot, the views from the Pass was nothing short of spectacular, it never gets old! I descend down the technical track with Will in the lead and we fly past Dean who is having hamstring issues. Will and I are now in 3rd/4th position, the track undulates along the side of the Mingha River, Will and I are both moving well and eventually we come across Max who has slowed down too. Will and I are now in 2nd/3rd position. Will was great company and we kept each other honest. Along this section I say to Will: “Will, I have a unusual request mate, and please only do it if you are absolutely certain you can do it. Do you have a spare gel I could have?” – I know we have around 50-60mins remaining and I have obviously gotten carried away and had consumed more gels than I intended but it seemed like the right choice at the time. I had also factored eating OSM bars into this nutrition plan, but I had bailed on that early as I had thrown up the one I had at 40mins in. Will responded that he would look into it, see what he had remaining and get back to me. Another small uphill and lead team runner Rhys John comes flying past, I ask him and he is quick to say he certainly didn’t have enough, he was going for a record time and was running light! On the final uphill to Dudley Knob, Will whips out one of his gels and hands it to me, what an absolute legend, at that moment I felt like I owed him my life! Descending back down to the Mingha River flats, this long technical descent is lead by Will who seems to really thrive in it. From here it’s around 6.7kms of river flats, still technical but no hills, I open up the legs and for the first time in years they responded and allowed me to keep a decent pace. Arriving at Klondyke, the end of the stage I happily bound up the small climb to the track and am convinced this is the best paced run I have ever done. Normally my legs and body are fried by this point but I felt like I had a skip in my step still. I arrive in 2nd place with Will only 1.5mins back. The split to Hamish in 1st place is now 12mins.

Stage 3 – 15km road cycle

I had a small setback trying to find my bike as I got a bit disorientated. It’s new to me that they are finally racking the bikes in numbered order (smart), all my previous years it was just racked first in first served. Due to the fluster I grab my bike and run all of 30m before everyone yells at me to go back and get my helmet, duh! I’m not too worried and still buzzing off the race that I’m having. Onto the bike I settle in, but legs aren’t feeling great. I push through it hoping for a bit of blood flow and that they would wake up. Eventually I end up just taking this stage smoothly but not putting all that much power down, although I take the downhills as fast as possible. Unfortunately Hamish was obviously feeling good on this stage as he was 2mins faster! Off the bike I hobble down the gravel road with Rob my support crew, we have some chat and I apply some fresh sunscreen. I’ve avoided this in the past but it doesn’t lose me any time to apply it and makes the following days a lot less miserable, not adding sunburn to the long list of post race injuries. I also remember to tell Rob to have a look at my bike as I can’t get the front derailleur to change down from the big ring to the little ring, at which Rob reminds me ‘what the heck do you need the little ring for on the last cycle!’. I lose about 20 secs to Hamish in this run down to the kayak and apparently after that and the 15km ride I am now 16mins down, which is starting to feel like a lot! Never the less all I want is to have a good paddle and claim back some time. Lisa, my wife is there on the rivers edge ready to help me into my kayaking gear, PFD, helmet, etc. Then her and Rob hold the kayak for me to get in. Transition smooth as.

Stage 4 – 70km River Kayak

Straight into it. I feel strong enough but my legs are pretty unhappy, adductors are cramping badly so I have to do some mental work to try and work through that while maintaining speed. I reach rock garden 2, around 9km in, and get a split update from the river safety crew: 16mins. So no change, I was hoping for a little bit but early days. My cramps went away and I got stuck in, everything was feeling functional again but my power on the blades was mediocre, I just couldn’t quite get into top gear. Then just after the gorge entrance my legs went from okay to really bad. Suddenly my hamstrings and glutes were in excruciating pain, perhaps I had done more damage on the run stage than I realised. I shuffled around in the boat trying different positions to try and relieve myself but it didn’t achieve much so I ended up doing a lot of arms-only paddling and leaning back.

The river was in pristine conditions, the iconic blue with plenty of exciting rapids to keep the tired brain busy + a nice sunny day. There was a headwind but nothing major. Around Walker Hut I started pausing for mini breaks, I felt like my body was so tired it had nothing left, but I knew that wasn’t true, I was certain there was more to it, maybe a pinched nerve and I just needed more blood flow.

With the red bridge in sight, around 42km in, I was in so much pain I sought after an immediate solution, I felt as though there was no way I could continue in the race with this level of pain and damage. So I pulled over to the side of the river and got out of my boat, shaking my legs and squeezing my muscles I tried to get some fresh blood pumping. In 2023 we had a compulsory portage where we carried our kayaks around a larger rapid. We had to run for around 200m. This was a game changer for my sore bum. I knew from that scenario that this quick leg shake could be the way to go. Jumping back into my boat, my first thoughts was that it hadn’t changed a thing. However around 10mins later the pain level dulled slightly, still pretty close to unbearable, but enough that I could make it to the end of the stage. It also required a few mind games including: Tricking myself that the finish was closer, lots of deep breaths and a reasonably amount of yelling). There was another moment where I planned to put every piece of sports gear I own up on Marketplace that evening, to never race or train ever again. 10mins later I perked up ever so slightly and decided I may have overreacted. Oh the deep lows can be sooo bad. Other than that, I was really happy with all my lines on the river, smooth and fast in the rapids, using the flow well and picking good braids.

At the end, Rob rips me out of my kayak and I can barely stand. My legs are toast. I hobble my way up to the stage end archway and begin ripping off my gear. Legs are not working. The split at this point is now 17mins. Bugger! I never expected to catch Hamish but I certainly hoped to gain some time back. My tummy is gurgling big time so I had to make my first ever diversion in the transition to the port-a-loo for 30secs. (Turns out during the 4hr 10min kayak stage I’d consumed over 500grams of sugar, over 40grams per hour more than I normally would). Apart from the tummy rumble I actually felt great energy wise, just cooked legs!

Stage 5 – 70km road cycle

Onto the bike, I settled into a good rhythm, ticking away. At this point I knew how far ahead Hamish was but I had no idea at all how far back 3rd place was. Around 20km down the road a media car is hanging around for some photos and I ask them if they know. Thankfully they respond that Will was 8mins back getting out of the kayak. That was a huge relief. With my terrible paddle I had expected a few lads to be a bit closer to me. (Turns out they were all having their own issues too! Classic). I knew I had enough in my legs to hold off 8mins, of course anything can still happen e.g. mechanical/puncture but I’m prepared for quite a few scenarios. I’m feeling the headwind and keeping my head low is making the bike go noticeably faster. My power numbers are not great but the kms are ticking by. I get slightly bored and remember that in the past I normally get up for a quick stretch. I give that go, my legs just about buckle under the cramp and even my arms hate me for it, I also drop from 38kmph to 33kmph in an instant – I won’t be doing that again! Surprisingly I find myself much more comfortable staying tucked in and aero. Mentally I’m not super happy, I’m in a lot of pain and a thought crosses my mind a few times, specifically about South Eyre road and this last cycle stage: This stage suck’s, why the heck am I doing this AGAIN. I have tortured myself down this road (which really lacks any thrill and excitement) far too many times and I’m really running out of reasons. Then I reached the housing area on Te Rito Street, and that was a good reason. Almost every household was out on their lawn and road side cheering us on racing! Signs and loud words of encouragement. Sprinklers going , I went straight for one of the hoses the kids were blasting on the road. It was great, I was still in pain but the company of supporting humans just makes it all a little bit more bearable. After that party street the following 10kms all the way to New Brighton was still lined with many supporters, that made the final kms tick by a little better.

Getting off my bike at the end was quite hard as I had lost most of my strength and flexibility to lift my leg over. The final 100m of sand to the finish archway had me seriously hobbling, especially the small staircase.

But I have made it. And in 2nd place. Stoked but really just wrecked. Why on earth do I do this to myself. I carry out an interview then go find Hamish in the medic tent, he’s enjoying a wee lie down. World class effort from him, I didn’t have a chance, even if I’d had a perfect day I’d have been no where near him. Huge congrats to him, a well deserved win again.

So I am left again to answer the question: Why did I do that to myself again? For many moments in the final 4 hours of the race I really did not have an answer, it was miserable at times. Without a doubt those moments were shit, and those moments are not the reason I do the race, I quite dislike those moments. (It’s worth noting that if i hadn’t been in that level of discomfit I would be writing about how disappointed I am in myself for not pushing hard enough). But the real reason as to why I keep doing it is in everything else: The epic adventures all year leading to it, the fun you get to have, training with mates who are like minded, driven and want to succeed, we push each other to be better and for that we all gain so much value. The thrill of the improvements in your own muscular strength and the skills across the sports. The thrill of challenging yourself and in a cool sport that takes you to so many special and wild locations. The thrill of race week, all the hype, the race registration – talking to so many people who are also nervous as we all head on to start the same big challenge. We have all been training all year for this big mission into the unknown, wanting only to do our best on this one (or two) day/s. The comfort that no matter what speed we’re travelling we are all in this together, even if some of us just want to beat the other. And the aftermath, the prizegiving but mostly the stories, the challenges we faced, what went wrong, what went right, the success and the failure. It’s all there. Doing this race is rather pointless on the grand scheme of everything, but it’s really just trying to not only do something with your life, but to do something cool, to share it with other people and to perhaps, hopefully, inspire someone as well.

A huge huge thanks to everyone that supported me out there on the day and on any of the days leading to the race! A special thanks to Rob Lord for his exceptional support crewing, the man knows how to get it done! To Lisa, my wife who also helped as a support crew this year (for the first time!) and supporting me throughout the grumpy tired training days. My parents who flew all the way down to watch again, and so many family members, my sister’s, Aunties, uncles, cousins and Grandparents, + all my friends. You must be getting sick of it, thank you for still supporting me doing this crazy race.