Thank-you to Canoe & Kayak North Shore for the entry to the Rodney Coast Challenge on November 14th. Having decided not to run the Auckland Marathon I thought it would be a good opportunity to compete in another multisport race

The format of the race is a 10km Run, 30km Road Bike, 24km Mountain Bike, & 8km Kayak: an interesting format with a particularly small amount of running

I firmly believe that I need to test myself continually against quality athletes, so upon arriving at registration I was pleased to see that Grant Donoghue, Bryce Irving, Sam Goodall and Steve McKinstry would all be lining up in the individual race

Within a couple of minutes of the start a group of four consisting of David Cooper, Graham Moore (both team runners), McKinstry and myself had formed, and we were working hard to build a gap on the rest of the field I put a bit of a surge on with 500m to go and managed to gap the group crossing the timing mat in a shade under 38 minutes. As far as I can work out this is the third fastest time recorded in the recorded history of the race

I had hoped that the two team riders might be of some assistance, though unfortunately I was riding on my own, or with a team rider sitting on my wheel for the majority of the ride. By the Road Bike to Mountain Bike Transition I was sitting in second place overall, a couple of minutes down on McKinstry and becoming increasingly conscious of those chasing me from behind

I found it difficult to get into any sort of rhythm on the mountain bike, and the heat was starting to get to me too. Team ‘Not All Old Men’, Sam Goodall, aero helmet and all, and Bryce Irving all came flying past me. I managed to stay with Irving just long enough to see him get it horribly wrong on the entry to a particularly nasty corner. How he managed to control his bike as he slid uncontrollably, with feet un-clipped still puzzles me

Kayaking has been a focus of late, and I thought I paddled really well, I even seemed to be catching the far-off figure of Irving in the distance

I finished 6th overall and was the 4th individual across the line in a time of 3:22:01

Thanks

James Kuegler

Athlete, Coach, Chiropractic Student

2010 Individual Male Open placed 4th with a time of 3:22:01 (split 37:53, 51:49, 1:03:04, 49:15) #109

2014 Mixed Team winner with a time of 3:16:09 (split James Kuegler 0:40:04, Aaron McCurdy 0:55:51, Dave Revell 0:57:00, Anna Murphy 0:43:14 #509