Country training helped coast-to-coaster

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 2

Country training helped coast-to-coaster

By

ANDREW MACALISTER

in Rangiora

Somehow Greg Dobson, a psychiatric- nurse from Cust, does not seem to fit the image of winner and record-holder in the Steinlager Coast-to-Coast event

But in the annual race held last week, it was Dobson who took 30 minutes off the previous record and became the first person to complete the event in less than 12 hours.

Dobson took the last three months off work from Sunnyside Hospital not so much to train for the event but to be with his wife at home after the loss of their first child. Sitting in their cottage at Cust, a quiet village 15 kilometres west of Rangiora, Dobson, who is 25, says that he does not regard himself as a fulltime trainer, or even as a “natural.”

“I have always done running since I was 12 or 13, but never really excelled. I have always been average or just above average,” he said. “In fact, the only other thing I have ever won was the South Canterbury inter-school cross-country champs in my final year at school.

“I always thought I was never meant to win. I would always be second,” he said. Dobson almost looks as though he means it, while sitting back in the lounge of their 100-year-old home and playing with the stray kitten he had found at the dump that morning. "If I had any brains I probably wouldn’t do the coast-to-coast,” he said. “I think the sensible ones are those who do it to say they have done it, not to win it.” The coast-to-coast event obviously means a lot to Dobson, and is one of the reasons he moved with his wife to Cust 18 months ago. He said that he had always been a “country lad” and that Cust was a nice distance from town and work for him.

It gives him a dally 45

kilometre bike ride into work and he can run through expanses of country rather than along asphalt roads. “While in Christchurch, I did a marathon and just about died. I hated it, all the jarring and roadwork. I was more tired after that than after a coast-to-coast,” he said. "Also there are lots of big, long straights round here for cycling along, which allow you to just pedal and think about things: the coast-to-coast, how your training is going

But Dobson says that he only does about 222y 2 hours to 3 hours training a day; “the most I would have done is about five hours in a day.”

He has other diversions — renovating the cottage and being with his wife,

Caroline, who is expecting their second child in June. Caroline, also a nurse, is not working at present. DObson says “she’s brilliant, she was behind me all the way and can really appreciate and understand why I do it.” As for the house: “Well, that’s been neglected a bit lately,” he said with a smile. Dobson intends to spend the next month concentrating on that aspect before beginning work again at Sunnyside. He is also a scoutmaster with the local group and helps to run a learn-to-swim class for Cust children.

He has recently proposed the formation of a swimming club in Cust, to go with the existing swimming association, and sees himself being part of that in the future.

Dobson and his wife hope to spend another few years in Cust before possibly moving to Otago, and nearer his home town of Geraldine. Dobson said he was interested in the coast-to-coast event right from its start four years ago when he contemplated doing it, but shied away because of his inexperience as a canoeist

The next year he entered, and with a poor kayak and “a few worries in the canoeing section” still came fifth.

After that success, Dobson bought a better canoe and kayak and began to train seriously for the third coast-to-coast. “But for three or four months beforehand I was pretty disorganised with moving house and then hurting a hamstring, which prevented me training,” he said. “Everything was wrong but I still got second and I knew I could do better if I was lucky, so with one day off I started training again.”

During the year, Dobson was given sponsorship and got another bicycle and kayak to help his training, and competed in several triathlons.

“And then losing the baby. But that was an inspiration. I wanted to do it for her and for Caroline,” he said.

The result was Dobson’s record-breaking win last week-end.

As for the future, now that he is a title-holder, Dobson will continue to train for the event, as it has become second nature for him.

He discounts the possibility of doing triathlons. “They are too short for me— I don’t have that explosive strength. The longer they are, the better they are for me.” This year he will also begin studying for a diploma of recreation and sport by correspondence — “that’s one of my main aims at the moment.”

Robin Judkins may organise a single-day coast-to-coast event for December.

To which Dobson says: “I’ll be a definite starter.”