Dunedin accountant Kirstin Harvey aimed to settle that debate when she competed in the two-day individual challenge of the Coast to Coast at the weekend.
Harvey (30) aimed to prove to fiance Rei Ishikawai she could make the journey from east to west much more quickly than it took him to travel north to south in last year’s Tour Aoteraoa, which took him 20 days.
On Saturday she completed the two-day individual section of the multisport event in 20hr 50min 49sec.
Harvey thinks Ishikawai just took took too much time to negotiate his journey and wanted to show him that the 243km multisport race from Kumara in the west across the great divide to New Brighton in the east is a lot more demanding than a 3000km bike ride that took him 20 days.
“I’ve now done west to east and Rei’s done north to south and it’s debate now as to which one is easier,” she said of the couple’s love for a sporting challenge.
“I don’t think he trained quite as hard as I did,” she said of the massive amount of training and dedication it took to make it to the start in recent months.
Harvey said the race was about maintaining herself section by section.
The demanding alpine run was about staying in the zone and negotiating the terrain at her own pace.
Harvey said the 67km Waimakariri River section stage was the one she was most nervous about.
“I had a few swims, but nothing too drastic. They [the kayak tumbles] were enough to cool me down and keep me going.”
As for the strong easterly head wind on the 70km cycle section to the finish Harvey said she took comfort in dealing with it from those around her as they too were suffering the same battles with fatigue as herself.
Harvey said her next challenge was to “plan a wedding”.
“Another reason I wanted to do this, was to do it before I become an old married women with children,” she quipped.
Ishikawai said he was extremely proud of her achievement and all the hours and dedication she had put into competing in the event.
“I think he’s going to see a lot more of me now,” she said.
Harvey said her experience in the race was also a good opportunity to get the final tick of approval from her mother, ultra-distance runner Sonya Harvey, of her future son-in-law.
Sonya made the trip down from Auckland to help Ishikawai act as part of her daughter’s support crew.
