Adventure racing: The family that races together ...

Knowing each other as well as only family can helped the Murrays earn a top 10 placing in the 557km Godzone adventure race.

The Wanaka-based foursome of Keith (53), Andrea (50) and their sons Charlie (19) and Craig (16) Murray raced as team Breen Homes and finished an impressive eighth in their hometown, just after 1am yesterday - five days and 17 hours after they started.

All four were upbeat after the race, with University of Otago student Charlie likening it to ''some of the crazy family missions dad dreams up for us around the dinner table.''

Andrea loved racing with her boys and credited ''knowing everyone so well that you can express yourself and knowing when someone is having a down side'' for their success as a team.

For GP Keith, getting his family through the trekking, coasteering, mountainbiking, swimming, canoeing and kayaking stages with their feet and spirits intact meant his goal was achieved.

''I couldn't be happier. I just wanted everyone to have a good experience and not be miserable,'' he said.

Their tactics involved stopping to sleep each morning around 1am and drying out their feet in sleeping bags, beginning racing again between 5am and 6am.

Spanish and Brazilian team Vidaraid placed second on Thursday at midday.

Team member Jon Ander Arambalza said although they loved Godzone, ''it was the toughest race we have done and harder than any AR [Adventure Racing] World Champs.''

Third place was contentious earlier that day.

Wanaka-based team Torpedo 7 (Richard Anderson, Bob McLachlan, Jo Williams and Simon Bowden) missed a control near Carricktown on the final mountain bike.

After being told at the Dublin Bay transition to the last kayak stage, the team had the choice of returning to collect the control, or carrying on unranked, which they did, crossing the finish line 43 minutes behind Vidaraid.

Therefore, Wanaka-Queenstown team, Tiki Tour (Floortje Grimmett, Mike Kelly and brothers Tom and George Lucas) moved up one place, to complete the podium, finishing just before 4pm.

Out of 52 teams, 14 finished the full course, 18 completed a shorter course, 10 were unranked due to members dropping out or navigation errors and 10 retired.

Add a Comment