Mr English was joined on the 50km cross-country bike race by two of his brothers, while his sister-in-law and niece ran the 42km marathon.
Mr English (47), who finished in 4hr 58min 41sec, joked afterwards he had seen a lot of people go past him - "a lot of bottoms, but unfortunately not the bottom of the recession".
But Mr English was probably not thinking about the state of the economy during his five-hour adventure.
"I was given four different remedies for cramp by fellow riders, and I'd just like to tell you that not one of them worked.
"[They were] quinine, a couple of homeopathic things and some other thing that tasted absolutely terrible, but people were very quick to help out and very encouraging along the way," Mr English said.
In addition to cramp, Mr English suffered some mechanical problems towards the end of the race.
"I got a flat tyre on the descent, and had to keep stopping to pump it up. I thought about three pump-ups would equate to about the same time as changing the tube," he said.
Mr English vowed that he would be back to do the race properly.
"I didn't ride anywhere near as well as I should have, so I've now got a challenge. I will go and do a bit of work on that," he said.
It would be good to do training where the total amount of it added up to more than the length of the race, he said.
Mr English described the course as more spectacular than he had imagined it would be, and was impressed by the attitudes of those out on the track.
"It's such a positive Kiwi thing. It's practical, it's outdoors and it's people supporting each other.
"It's mixing the slowest with the best. One of the top mountain bikers in the world is here, and you have people who take three-times as long as him to complete the course here too. That's a fantastic event."
