Dylan you’d like this

So spent today with several of my relatives cheering on my stepsister Irene, who was competing in the Coast to Coast, a 151-mile multisport event from New Zealand’s West Coast to its East Coast.

Talk about tough. It starts with a 1.8-mile sprint, followed by a 34-mile cycle; then a 20-mile mountain run across rough and rocky terrain; a 9-mile cycle; a 42-mile kayak downriver; finishing with a 43-mile bike ride.

Irene was competing in the harder of two divisions, trying to get it all done in one day. Others had two days. For the one-day, you’re basically up before dawn in Greymouth for the 6:30 a.m. beach start, and likely finishing around nightfall on the beach in Christchurch. Hardcore.

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out for Irene.

I guess she had also spent some time going to weddings and sailing when she shoulda been training. Today was a HOT sunny day, and I’m sure the heat had something to do with it. She wasn’t able to finish the mountain run by the 3 p.m. cutoff and was one of several competitors disqualified. (Organizers didn’t want anyone kayaking in the dark).

It’s a pity, she looked in awesome shape:

And how tough does this course look? Imagine running over these rocks for quite aways:

The run also had 22 water crossings. I certainly couldn’t tackle this without a lot more training.

Working on a support crew involves a lot of waiting around:

A kea, New Zealand’s mischevious “mountain parrot.” These inquisitive birds are absolutely fearless of humans and love to destroy stuff, including cars:

Irene on her bike:

On the way to Greymouth (Photo taken from inside of our van, looking backwards):

Irene’s husband Perry, a surgeon, did finish around 9:45 p.m., after nightfall. It seemed like a great event. There were several “world teams,” representing Australia, Sweden, Hong Kong and the U.K. Apparently all that is needed to represent a foreign country is three members of that country … no team from the U.S., although two competitors were … hmm.