Monday, July 11, 2011
I'll only mention this once.
On my wedding anniversary this year, The Husband and I had our kind of evening, starting with a twilight swim at Manly Beach, followed by a walk to a little cove where we sat on the beach with a beer and bag of chips pulled from our backpack, watching some surf life savers doing drills with a long boat in front of us (and whoever's idea it was for life savers to wear their swimmers up like a thong was a blimmin genius). We decided this was our year for finding a challenge. A big one. A challenge that would physically test us and push us to a limit neither of us has gone near. Something that could be our thing. Where we could be a team. Then three fateful words were muttered. Coast. To. Coast.
The Speights Coast to Coast is an iconic adventure race in New Zealand. It starts on the West Coast of the South Island and involves for us as a team, two days of racing to arrive at the beach on the East Coast. It goes something like this Day 1: The Husband runs 3km, then rides (uphill) 55kms, I then run 33kms on a mountain course, Day 2: The Husband rides 15kms, then kayaks 69kms, I ride 70kms. I get butterflies looking at this. Some freaks do this in a day, some in just over 11 hours. That's about the amount of time The Husband is expecting to sit in his kayak.
Let me paint the picture. We are veteran novices with zero experience in this kind of event. We will be some of the oldest out there and there is a good chance we will also be the slowest. I'll be keeping a serious eye on my run for two cut off times. The Husband basically has to learn to kayak. We will be hugely dependent on friends who have done the event or supported teams in it before (Hi Katie. Hi Al).
I am not going to bore you in this blog with what my life will consist of for the next 7 months, there may be the odd mention but I know you don't pop in for a visit to read about training runs, hydration and chafing.
But I do want to say that this is the scariest physical thing I have ever attempted (yet!) and I think we are on the cusp of being beyond our capabilities. But one thing I can guarantee is that we will be giving it a red hot go. And that is motivation itself. Feel the fear. And do it anyway. Sage words.
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Good on you. Very impressed. You're a MUCH braver woman than I am. Look forward to hearing about how you're doing.
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