Bryant going whole hog on first Coast to Coast

Filling in time at her parents’ home in Dunedin four months ago, Sarah Bryant had the urge to enter New Zealand’s multisport race the Coast to Coast.

But unlike most who contest the two-day event first up, as a forerunner to the Longest Day the following year, the 31-year-old dentist went the whole hog and lodged her entry for the Longest Day.

Bryant, who has been based in Christchurch for the past six months, has not lost her competitive mojo that had her travelling the world as a national junior triathlon representative, but time was not on her side once she hit the elite senior ranks, as she juggled her training with dentistry studies and cementing a career.

With talent to burn at all three triathlon disciplines and not one to rest on her laurels, Bryant discovered the world of multisport.

Running and biking are second nature but she is, by her own admission, still mastering the art of kayaking. This has not stopped her contesting three Godzone challenges in recent years. All three have had their moments, as her team failed to finish the first two, and last year two of her team members came to grief just an hour before the finish when a rockfall tipped them out of their kayaks, leaving Bryant to finish with only one of her three team mates.

Undeterred by those three results, she and her team will once again be fronting at Queenstown later this month, hoping that it will be fourth time lucky in the Godzone. She will be using the Longest Day section of the Coast to Coast as a forerunner.

The former St Hilda’s Collegiate School pupil described the Coast to Coast course as "definitely technical", and with cut-off times lurking at each stage, she would be making the most of her opportunities while not taking anything for granted.

Having contested numerous adventure races over the past seven years, along with ironman events in America and Australasia, Bryant rated her victory in the Challenge Wanaka Half Ironman four years ago as one of her highlights. And having a sudden urge to contest the Longest Day at the Coast to Coast without any previous knowledge of the course came as little surprise to her parents, Steve and Rose Bryant, who are now well into a second decade of following their daughter’s sporting prowess around the world.

"I just thought I felt like a challenge," she said.

"All my friends do this. It may be fun."

But doubts crept in when Bryant first looked over the course late last year, and she wondered what  she had let herself in for. She thought she should have opted for the two-day stepping stone as a first-up option to the event.

Having returned to the course since, Bryant is now confident. Her only worry is making the cut-off times on the run and kayak course.

"I’ve really got to focus on the different skills required."

Bryant added that with the  technical nature of the run and kayak stages, training trips over these course stages in particular had been a huge benefit, particularly with the weather conditions of recent months when she had experienced both high and low river levels and little shelter from wind. Recent slips  over these two stages would also play a part.

"This is bigger than any iron man. I’ll just be happy to finish."