Many months and even more miles of gruelling training had brought Sara Hamilton to Kumara, on the east coast of New Zealand.
Her goal to cross the finish line, on the west coast, was 243 kilometres away. The Coast to Coast consists of 140Km of cycling, 36km of running, and 67km of paddling.
She could well have been facing the longest two days of her life.
Sara, a golfer and tennis player, did not know what adventure racing was until she played the role of support crew for her 20 year-old son the previous year.
It was then inspiration struck and the 'bug' took hold.
Sara and her husband Kerry learnt to kayak in July, during the depths of winter, in temperatures of around 4 degrees Celsius. She also learnt to cycle. Kerry developed a training plan out of a book and they started to "seriously" train in September — five months out from the race.
The training schedule? "It was tough, really tough."
Juggling family and work meant getting up at 5am most mornings to go for a cycle and a run. A two hour run. And the weekends were dedicated to training — especially kayaking.
It was an all-consuming schedule. "Our youngest daughter, who is 15 yrs, felt like a bit of an orphan through these months. So I said, 'That's it, after this, I'm all yours again!'"
"We loved the training, our body shapes have just changed dramatically and I loved learning to cycle, and paddling...I was so nervous to start with, and I was very nervous going down the river [during the race]. It wasn't a pretty kayak, I took every 'chicken-run' there was!"
"The lovliest part of the Coast for us was the fact that all our kids were our support crew and you come up to the transition and you just hear this screaming, 'Come on Mum, come on Dad!'"
"That was such a buzz. To me that was more important than getting over the line. It was a whole bond — worth gold."
"It was a full-on adventure. When I got started on the final 3km run I had to pinch myself I was finally here."
Crossing the finish line after two days and more than 18 hours racing was "amazing".
"I was absolutely exhausted. I couldn't even unclip from my bike. And then I just heard the kids screaming and I didn't know where they were, it was all a bit of a haze and so emotional, it was very emotional. It was an absolute thrill."
Sara won the Classic Women's section for the 50-plus age group. No mean feat for a first-timer.
Sara was amazed at the level of support shown during the race from some of the other 800 competitors.
On the final cycle leg, when she had "nothing left in the tank" a group took her into their bunch and gave her renewed determination to reach Christchurch — the final destination.
"Everyone was out there to help people cross the line and achieve their dream. I've never experienced that..., it was such a lovely, selfless sharing of information and it was great."
"Mentally I was surprised because I thought that that might be my downfall, I thought I mightn't be mentally tough enough, but that never even entered the race. I was just so hyped up, I was just on a absolute high the whole time.
The only time I was worried was on the kayak and I really didn't even see my surroundings, I was just so focused on the water and not falling out. I'd like to go back down and paddle it relaxed so I could actually see where we'd been.
Was it worth it?
"Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. When you get to a certain age you think, 'well, what else is there?'
"Going out and learning to bike and learning to kayak have opened up so many new frontiers for me....and it's just to believe that you can actually achieve something — make a goal and make it happen. I wouldn't be scared about trying more new stuff now."
And the future?
"I've never done a marathon, so I thought I might try that. I don't know, we'll see what pops up."
About 80 international competitors enter the Speight's Coast to Coast each year, from about 15 countries. The event has been won five times by internationals from Australia, England and South Africa.
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