The Day of the Snow Leopard

Behind me McKerrow lay snoring, his head on his camera bag, spread-eagled on the rocks, chest bared to the warm Canterbury sunshine.It was time for a quick kip as we waited for the Longest Day competitors to paddle out of the Waimakariri Gorge.

There was a hell of a race going on up river. We had watched them hit the water 67 kilometres ago at Mount White Bridge. The rank out-sider, the "Boy from Kumara", Jim Cotter, had come out of the mountain run nearly nine minutes ahead of the thoroughbreds—John Jacoby, Jeff Mitchell, Steve Gurney and Russell Prince.

Bob McKerrow of Hokitika, former editor of Adventure magazine, had hitched a ride with me from the end of the mountain run at Klondyke. He had been riding shotgun in a helicopter over Goat Pass with event director Robin Judkins, gathering insight for a book on the history of the Coast to Coast he is co-writing with John Woods.

"We were sitting on Juddy's favourite rock at Big Boulders when suddenly this runner appears with 54 on his bib. We had to look in the programme to identify him," said McKerrow.

"It's Jim Cotter from Kumara," McKerrow shouted into his tape recorder. "He's way out front—leaping from rock to rock with all the grace of a snow leopard."

Cotter (23), who set a record time of 2hr 40min 35sec on the mountain, was definitely a cat amongst the pigeons. For the 1993 Speight's Coast to Coast Longest Day was a star-studded line up as they set out from Kumara Beach on the Saturday morn-ing.

The 1992 winner, Rockley Montgomery (33) of South Africa, was back. Two-times winner from 1988 and 1989, John Jacoby (27) of Australia was there. So too was record holder and winner in 1990 and 1991, the enigmatic Kiwi "King of Multi-sport", Steve Gurney (28). Running again was the winner of the inaugural one-day race in 1987, Russell Prince (37), Jacoby, who had been talked into entering at the last minute, had his sights set on the time barrier prize, the Subaru GX station wagon from Garry Donnithorne Motors of Christchurch.
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Helen Healey, Philip Western, Carolyn Oatley and Kathleen Thompson cross the Deception at the beginning of the mountain section.

Left: Steve Gurney emerges from the Mingha River at the end of the Goat Pass Mountain. Right: Jim Cotter leaps from rock to rock with , as Bob McKerrow expounded, with "all the grace of a snow leopard".

Prior to the event Jacoby had been training with Prince who had whizzed the Australian up on the fastest route over the mountain and the quickest braids on the river. Montgomery had a point to prove. Could he handle the real course?

As the race progressed, the answer became obvious. Gurney, too, had a lot to prove, and, although outspoken in recent newspaper headlines, he did not seem the aggressive, self-motivated, hell-man of previous years.

Prince, possibly smarting from comments Gurney made about his athletic prowess after the Tuatapere Wild Challenge, seemed to be acting as co-pilot for Jacoby. Jeff Mitchell (30), 1992 runner-up and always a threat, looked sharp. So too did Murray Chapman (32).

And then there was this bloke called Jim Cotter—the "Snow Leopard" — who scattered the plump pigeons at the very start of the mountain run.

"It was crazy, no-one wanted to take the lead, " said Jacoby. "We all looked at each other. Gurney was in the bushes taking a crap, Russell was pretending to do up his shoe laces. Cotter took off on his own."

At the Bealey River cycle-transition Cotter dashed out of the Mingha in record time and set out for the Mount White Bridge, an 18km cycle ride down the Arthurs Pass highway. He was nearly nine minutes ahead of the others.

At the bridge, the start of the 67km paddle down the Waimakariri River, Jacoby followed by Mitchell, Chapman, Gurney and Prince set out in pursuit of the local boy with the cherry grin.

They paddled, we drove, to the end of the river section at the Waimakariri Gorge Bridge where the tail-enders of the two-day event were coming in thick and fast. From here there was a 70km cycle, into a head-wind this day, to Sumner Beach and the finish.

Speight's, the  event and the product, were having a soporific effect, so we decided there was time to lie in the sun while waiting for the Longest Dayers.

I am awoken by the sound of familiar voices behind me. McKerrow was awake and talking to Sandy Sandblom. Sandy is one of the original Coast to Coasters, what McKerrow calls a "real mountain man".

Sandblom and his wife had cycled out from Christchurch to watch the transition and intended to cycle back home again. A mere 140km round trip on a Saturday afternoon.

There was a flurry of excitement on the river bank. Jacoby was coming in. Gurney turned up three minutes later in second place followed closely by Mitchell and Prince, and then Cotter. By this stage Rockley Montgomery, the title-holder, was 20 minutes behind the leader and well out of the race.

As they cycled into the north-easterly towards Sumner the drama became focused on whether or not Gurney could make up the five minutes needed to catch Jacoby. For a while it looked possible with the big Australian obviously doing it hard into the wind.

But that man Cotter was about to make a come-back, passing Mitchell he began to reel in Gurney. Could he possibly catch Jacoby as well?

While Jacoby was mentally calculating his fading chances of winning the Subaru, Cotter overwhelmed a struggling Gurney.

"He went past me yelling abuse and joking. I couldn't believe it. I was so stuffed I couldn't reply," said Gurney.

At Sumner Beach just after 5pm Jacoby strode up the finish chute to take line honours, but was 9 minutes and 47 seconds short of winning the record time Subaru.

He was in the spotlight for a mere 19 seconds when a still cheerful, still grinning, Jim Cotter surged over the line in second place. In many ways his gutsy effort eclipsed the triumph of the Australian.

Three minutes and 19 seconds later a disappointed, but good-natured, Steve Gurney ran up to the chaos of press, race officials and well-wishers to claim third place.

"They beat me fair and square," he said. "I just didn't have the old enthusiasm. I wanted to win, but I wasn't hungry enough. I guess I didn't have the same self-confidence, the same high, I had a couple of years ago.

"I am disappointed of course, I put a lot of effort into training and motivation. It's been a difficult year to get up again after last year's loss. But I'm pleased I still hold the record which was set in similar conditions to this year."

Jacoby said he went into the race "pretty blasé" about it, not having done any specific training for the event, but may have benefited from being fresh.

"I stayed with the bunch during the first bike ride, just keeping out of trouble. Got into the mountain run where everyone just stopped, no-one was game to take the lead. There were about six of us waiting around not making the first move, we should have taken a pack of cards; only Jim Cotter took off.

"Right from the beginning my legs started to cramp, so I just settled in behind Russell and gradually came right. I felt good on the downhill and got a gap on Steve while he was still coming up. On the flat Jeff Mitchell took off so I stayed with him. The middle bike ride was pretty fast—the paddle was hard. I had to pull about seven minutes on Cotter, I had him in my sights for a while and then finally passed him about a third of the way in. I was struggling towards the end.

"The last ride went well for the first 40 minutes sitting on 37-40kph, but then the wind picked up and I got slower and slower. I was thinking about Gurney behind me and the Subaru in front of me, but by the time I got to Yaldhurst I knew it was going to be a tall order."

And it was. The Australian crossed the line to claim his third Coast to Coast Longest Day title in 11hr 06min 02sec, just under 10 minutes behind Gurney's record of 10hr 56min 14sec.