One Leg, Two days, 283 Kilometres

Steve Maitland is  an inspiration.

He is a lower limb amputee—a one-legged man to put it unkindly—and this year he entered and finished New Zealand's most arduous test of strength and endurance, the Speight's Coast to Coast.

The two-day, 283 kilometre race from Kumara Beach on the West Coast of the South Island to Sumner Beach at Christchurch is a tough enough challenge for most athletes.

But then most people are not Steve Maitland, the 40 year old music tutor from Ross on the West Coast who lost his left leg below the knee in a road accident in 1972.

"It's been a big achievement to get my body back into shape after vegetating for so many years. I've been through a lot of pain, but this is the prize at the end of it."

Maitland competed in the Coast to Coast in 1992, in a team that time doing the first cycle and the kayak legs. This year he was ready to go solo and to take on the event's toughest challenge—the 26 kilometre mountain run up and over Goat Pass.

This run is enough to send the world's top endurance athletes into a spin. It begins with several waist deep crossings of the multiple braids of the Deception River which flows west out of the main divide of the Southern Alps. The runners then do their best to follow the rock strewn course of the Deception as it snakes up into the alps for some 12 kilometres to Goat Pass at a height of 1076m. On this section the competitors must scramble and climb up a river gorge blocked with boulders the size of houses. Then follows the descent of the Mingha River flowing east for some 14 kilometres out of the divide to its junction with the Bealey River back at the Arthurs Pass Highway.

Maitland spent just over seven hours scrambling over the mountains, the fastest competitor took just under three.

"Coming down the Mingha was the worst thing," said Maitland. "The blisters, the jolting—I was virtually crawling on two hands and one leg."

On the hour Maitland had to stop and spend five minutes changing the sock, and generally maintaining the health of his stump

"Stump maintenance is a big part of succeeding. I have to guard against blisters, abrasions and tendon damage. But I had done the training and have learnt to take care of myself."

Twice on training runs Maitland admitted he had snapped the foot of his prosthesis and had been forced to hop home.

Two weeks prior to the Coast to Coast event the former West Coast rugby representative took delivery of a high-tech carbon fibre running leg, priced at around $6000, which he says was his "secret weapon".

Steve Maitland finished the 1993 event, after running a total of 29 kilometres, cycling 143 kilometres and paddling 67 kilometres, in a time of 16hrs 38min 48sec. It was an inspirational performance.

"You can't afford to have memories about what you used to be. You have to be what you are today. It's been my destiny to have only one leg and I'm quite happy to be what I am—I'm a richer person because of it."

Maitland says he is definitely looking at taking on more athletic challenges—his new racing leg has opened up new possibilities.

"Yeah it's quite on the cards I'll do the Coast to Coast again, next time I might give the one-day race a go."