Coast-to-Coast runners gather

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 6

Coast-to-Coast runners gather

Jim Budde has only a few worries about the cold he is likely to face on the Steinlager Coast-to-Coast endurance race this week-end. The 40-year-old doctor from Hawaii has raced in some climatically demanding places before. Take, for instance, the Mauna Kea volcano in his home state. Budde completed a marathon race on the volone or SO4 triathlon-type events heA hM finished in the last

four or five years. “We had to be a bit careful where we put our feet, that’s for sure. The volcano is supposed to be extinct but it acts up every so often,” he said at a gathering for overseas contestants in the Coast-to-Coast race. Budde is one of several entrants from the United States, the most extraordinary perhaps being another entrant from Hawaii, Cowman A. Cowman. He describes himself as

an artist but has a penchant for the tongue in cheek. He has completed seven Hawaiian ironman events — many of them wearing what resembles a cow’s head. He was expected to arrive in Christchurch last evening. An Australian competitor, Kevin Piercy, has some first-hand knowledge of the course having been over it a week ago. "It rained all day and it was freezing,” he said yesterday.

"It was windy and with it being wet too it was really cold.” Piercy and another Australian, Andrew Maffett, are keen to promote the Australian equivalent of the Coast-to-Coast while in New Zealand. The event, the Wildtrek Winter Classic, will be in July and includes running, riding, canoeing and Nordic ski-ing. “It is a covering 144 km,” sad Piercy, who competed in last year’s Australian

race. For a Japanese competitor, Hideo Tanikawa, the Coast-to-Coast is a chance to enjoy himself. “I came here two months ago and I’ve cycled up the West Coast and been over the running route,” he said. This will be his first entry in an endurance event, a decision he made while cycling across Australia’s Nullarbor Plain. “I had a lot of time tothink about it,” he said.