Kelly (36) won last year's race, despite making a basic mistake of losing her bib on the kayaking leg and having a dreadful bike ride.
She managed to hang on and win by the narrow margin of 38sec from Mitch Mitchell (Queenstown) in 19hr 40min in the three-day event.
Kelly's gremlins were more costly in the two-day Speight's Coast to Coast race last month when she punctured on the first day and played "catch-up" after that.
It was a tight race in the end and Chantel Knox (Cromwell) beat Kelly by just 37sec.
Kelly, the winner in 2008, was timed at 14hr 45min 34sec.
Kelly has been competing seriously in multisport for the last three years and has learnt valuable lessons from her early races. This will affect her tactics.
"I want to run my own race, go at my own pace, and not blow myself out by trying to follow someone else," she told the Otago Daily Times.
"It is a long race and I won't be worrying about other competitors."
She has an impressive record in the last three years, winning the two-day individual Coast to Coast, the three-day Goldrush, the 125km Contact Epic mountain bike race and the 31km Carricktown Crusher.
Kelly began training seriously three years ago when encouraged by Ettrick athletes Tracey Pringle and Michael Wright.
They will join partner Duncan McDougal in her support crew this weekend.
She dabbled in the sport about five years ago, but did not really get going until she kicked a two-pack-a-day smoking habit.
Kelly grew up in Ettrick and did not have the sporting opportunities offered in the cities or she might have taken up multisport sooner.
"But running is something I have always done. Even when smoking and drinking, I always used to go for a run for the good of my health," she said. "But now I go a lot further."
The equipment she used in her early races was pretty basic, but she has now become more sophisticated and is riding her second mountain bike in three years.
The old road bike has been replaced by a more expensive and faster model. Her next step was to get a knowledgeable coach to develop her potential and has employed Cromwell's Bill Godsell.
She now spends between 10 and 20 hours training each week on her mountain and road bikes, on her kayak and running up hills over farmland.
Kelly's diet has changed and she has thrown out the fatty food and chocolate bars and now has a more balanced diet that includes plenty of fruit and vegetables.
She now has a more sophisticated diet during a race that includes carbohydrate leppins, carbohydrate replacement drinks, square meal bars, creamed rice and her famed "bird seed" biscuits that contain sunflower seeds.
The 376km Goldrush event starts at Pioneer Park tomorrow at 8.30am with 360 competitors.
