Coast To Coast Legend Chasing Crazyman

11 December

Established in 1991, the 54k multisport event takes a scenic kayaking, mountain biking and running tour around the iconic outdoor elements of the Hutt Valley.

Event manager Michael Jacques has been participating, coaching and organising in the endurance sport community for 45 years. “We think the Fine Signs Crazyman is the second longest running multisport race in New Zealand,” says Jacques.

“Only the Coast to Coast has been around longer and the Crazyman has been won by most of the sport’s greats too, so it has a very real stature on the national scene.”

With no previous winners entered among men this year, the 2024 Fine Signs Crazyman is shaping up as a wide-open affair as several previous placegetters will face a Coast to Coast legend taking on the Crazyman for the first time.

Favourite would have to be former Coast to Coast winner, Sam Clarke. Clarke, who won the Coast to Coast in 2016 to 2018 and 2020), is returning to the sport this summer and said the Crazyman was one of the first races he heard about when he first took to multisport as a teenager in 2006. He won’t have it all his own way, however, as locals Ryan Tait and Bruce Hughes will be keen to take their first Crazyman wins.

Hughes, a South African now living here, has won the Porirua Grand Traverse but not the Crazyman. Similarly, Tair has been second and third at the Porirua Grand Traverse, but not placed before at the Crazyman. And then everyone will be wary of a dark horse in the form of Olympic kayaker Kurtis Imrie, who is lining up for his first foray into multisport.

Among women, locals Ruth Cornelius and Amanda Rowe are most likely to take line honours. Cornelius won here in 2020 ahead of second placed Rowe, who was also third last year. So both will be keep for that top spot.

Jacques points out, however, that multisport is really a “people’s sport” aimed at getting anyone of any age and ability into New Zealand’s great outdoors. People like local stalwarts, Les Morris. Until last year Morris was the only person to have raced every Crazyman, but a heart surgery saw him miss the start in 2023. But he’s back for 2024!

Certainly, the Fine Signs Crazyman is something worth achieving. On a course that is as spectacular as it is challenging, it kicks off with a 13k kayak from Days Bay in Eastbourne and heads along Wellington Harbour’s eastern coastline to Petone. Paddlers take in the historic Petone Wharf and finish in the lower reaches of the Hutt River at Sladden Park.

At Petone they swap kayaks for mountain bikes for a 28k ride up the Hutt River trail and over Belmont Regional Park. The route takes in a hidden tunnel and creek crossings, then peaks out for 360-degree views from the volcanic rock-strewn Boulder Hill, before passing historic WWII ammunition bunkers and Wellington’s oldest farm tracks to finish on dedicated mountain bike trails at the historic Stratton Street Woolshed.

Bikes are then swapped for running shoes for the 13k trail run over the edge of Belmont Hill and down the bush clad Korokoro Stream. Following a trail that was first used by Maori in pre-European times, this run is as historic as it is spectacular and eventually finishes where European settlers first landed, on Petone Foreshore.

With harbour swells, more than 1000m of vertical ascent and sometimes challenging weather, the Fine Signs Crazyman has earned the title, the “race from hell,” although Jacques prefers to call it “a hell of a race”.

The 2024 Fine Signs Crazyman is scheduled for Sunday December 15th. See www.crazyman.co.nz for online entry and live entry lists.

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