If there is a dark horse in the field with the ability to spoil the podium party of the three Sams in tomorrow's one-day race of the Coast to Coast, then it is Wanaka's Bob McLachlan.
Sam Clark (Whakatane), Sam Manson (Auckland), and Sam Goodall (Christchurch), along with Australian Jarad Kohlar, are all heavily favoured to fill the first four places.
One competitor overlooked in the list of top 10 is 44 year-old McLachlan.
It might be 25 years since McLachlan lined up at dawn on a brisk Friday morning at Kumara Beach, as an 18-year-old in 1991, to contest the two-day event.
His memories of that race, in which he clocked a time of 13hr 12min 27sec for the 243km journey, are mostly of having a sore knee and fading badly on the second day after completing the first day in fourth place.
A native Cantabrian, McLachlan had been inspired to contest the 1991 event by neighbour Greg Dobson, a Coast to Coast champion in 1986, and the first to record a sub-12-hour time for the race, which until 1987 was solely held as a two-day event.
A former world outrigger and rafting champion, McLachlan seven years ago moved to Wanaka, an area that drew him into the local multisport and adventure racing scene.
His skills were not lost on Wanaka multisport champions Braden Currie, Dougal Allan and Jess Simson, who ushered him into their international adventure racing team in 2014 as a replacement for Currie's brother Glen.
McLachlan drew inspiration from the three as well as coming into contact with another Wanaka athlete, Keith Murray, and Nelson's Nathan Fa'avae and Richard Ussher, all past champions on the Coast to Coast course.
Murray's 22-year-old record of 10hr 34min 37sec has not been bettered.
But the youthful intensity brought to the game tomorrow by a new generation of multisport athletes will not be lost on McLachlan, who has prepared for it with tips and advice handed down by his group of peers.
"Dougal [Allan] knows the race and he knows me. That's why I was happy for him to put a training programme together,'' McLachland said.
He has been training up to 20 hours a week with a desire to give the race a good shot.
A handy runner with strong paddling skills, McLachlan will take a similar approach to the race as mentor Allan, by staying in his own zone and contesting the race under his own terms.
McLachlan admits that his entry had come about as a desire to get the Longest Day out of his system, while his children were still young enough for him to commit to the hours of training it required and while still able to put the fear of god into his more favoured younger rivals.
"I figured if I was to do this, then I didn't want to go in undercooked.''
Whatever the result for McLachlan tomorrow, he is adamant that his first thoughts will be with his family, because it has been their support and that of friends in the local community that has made it possible for him to achieve his goal.
The day after the Coast to Coast, McLachlan will back in the mountains, guiding members of the Waratahs rugby team on a Southern Alps hiking, biking and river-rafting adventure.
Bob McLachlan
At a glance
Age: 44
Marital status: Partner Cat Pattison, daughters Brooke (5), and Jade (3).
Home: Lake Hawea.
Achievements: NZ ski rogaine champion; NZ age-group cross-country ski champion; member of first-placed Team NZ Adventure in China 2014 and second with Team Torpedo7 2015; second-place Godzone with team-mate Simon Bowden; second Waimakariri River Classic January 2016; first Clutha River Classic December 2015.
World titles: Former world outrigger and rafting champion.
