One participant of this year’s Central South Island Charity Bike Race has proved that age is no barrier.
At 81, Ron Paulin has completed the 385km race for the ninth year.
While some entrants had the help of an electric bicycle, Mr Paulin had — once again — stuck to pedal power.
He said the pain from the three-day bike ride did not come from the legs, but from sitting on a bicycle seat for so long.
Some of the other participants had "lovely big cushioned seats" but he said the wider the seat, the more chafing you got.
He said getting on to the seat of the bicycle on the third day of the event in particular was the most painful.
Despite the pain, Mr Paulin would not "rule out" taking part in future.
He said at his age there were "so many things in my life I won’t be able to do again" that he did not want to add anything else to the list.
Besides, "there are a lot of sleeps between now and then".
He said there was "quite a bit of luck" involved in taking part in the event in the ninth decade of his life.
"Having good health is luck, I think I’m very fortunate," he said.
Mr Paulin stopped running at 75; not because the running had become difficult, but due to recovery time taking much longer than when he was younger.
So he had swapped to biking instead.
"Biking is a lot easier."
His first charity bike race was in 2012.
Mr Paulin did not want to keep "beating the same people over the head".
"You don’t know what everyone’s circumstances are."
When he realised one particular donor was putting money aside all year to put towards the event, he felt encouraged to keep going.
Mr Paulin was incredibly thankful to all of the people who had donated money towards him and all the other entrants over the years.
He said this year’s event had half of the number of riders which meant less money was raised than in other years.
But he said it was still a significant amount of money raised, money the community would not have seen if the event had not taken place.
The cost of a lightweight road bike might have put some riders off, but he had bought his second-hand because he had decided raising money for charity should not come at a great personal cost.
While the bike was slightly too small for his 1.83m height, through the years Mr Paulin had made it work.
