Buildup agonising for determined competitor
DESPITE damaging his back in a training accident, former Dunedin man Josh Harris still made it to the start line to contest the Coast to Coast tandem team section with good mate David Slater.
Now living on the Sunshine Coast, Harris came to grief on his bike while training, resulting in three bulged discs in his lower back that severely restricted his movement.
“I could barely walk and have had to go through huge amounts of rehab and have had to have injections into my spine, all to fulfil my resolve in making it to the start line,” he said.
“It’s been the toughest buildup I have ever had to do for a race. The intense pain has been insane and the mental side of training for six months and not knowing if I can compete has been brutal.”
Harris also wanted to bury a few skeletons from his third time on the twoday course in 2015, when he had to call it quits on the alpine stage. And it was his main worry heading into this year’s race yesterday.
Before 2015, Harris had contested the twoday individual title twice, finishing 21st in 2011 and fourth in 2013, clocking a smart time of 12hr 38min 56sec.
While Harris has had some dark moments in the months since his accident, he said it had been the pull from Slater that had brought him out the other side.
“I just couldn't let him down.” Harris said at the end of the first day of competition, in which the pair finished in the top half of the field, he would not have been able to do it without Slater.
“My run went better than expected. Dave put me on a tow line for the whole run and dragged me through.”
Slater has been no stranger to the course over the past decade, with a fourth place in the twoperson team section in 2011, 20th in the Longest Day in 2012 in 13hr 59min 47sec and fifth in the twoday individual in 2013, clocking 12hr 48min 19sec.
Former All Black captain Richie McCaw teamed up with New Zealand Rugby Players Association chief executive Rob Nichol in the tandem event.
They finished in a time of 5hr 34min 44sec.