Tackling today’s Peak to Peak will be pretty special for first-time competitor Josh Moore.
The newly-turned 40-year-old local had wanted to do the iconic, long-running multisport race, between Queenstown’s The Remarkables and Coronet Peak ski field, in his mid-20s.
But he couldn’t as for six years he was the timer at the finish-line while working for Coronet’s race department.
Moore then started on a fitness journey two years ago and entered Peak to Peak last year, only for it to be cancelled for the second year running due to Covid crowd restrictions.
‘‘I did a sort of unofficial one, and went and did the paddle, the run and the bike [up Coronet].’’
This year he’s entered again, while his Silver Creek subdivision above Frankton Road, which he’s a co-developer of, is also the new
naming sponsor.
Moore, who’d also targeted this year’s Coast to Coast multisport event before it, too, was cancelled, says he’s never been fitter.
‘‘At the moment I’m doing about 10 to 12 hours a week, cycling, running, kayaking, plus a bit of weight training.’’
Some of his training’s on Silver Creek, a 33-hectare land parcel with about 150 metres of vertical across the middle of it.
Kayaking’s his favourite discipline, though, as he’s 193cm tall and nearly 100kg, he says ‘‘finding a boat that is big enough for me to
get into is always fun’’.
As for his aim on this afternoon, he quips: ‘‘Just not to come last.’’
Meanwhile, Silver Creek’s also fielding a team, comprising employees Dan Horton (downhill bike), Andre Bizarriao (run) and Graham Jenkins (uphill cycle) and young ring-ins Will Speakman (skiing), 16, and Jess Macdonald (paddling), 17.
Moore says there’s a bit of rivalry, but he’ll be ‘‘shocked if they didn’t beat me … they’re all at least 15 years younger than me,
and there’s five of them’’.
P2P field peaking
Almost 500 competitors had entered Peak to Peak by early this week — 80 teams of five plus 85 individuals.
That compares favourably with the 450-plus competitors who entered the last event in 2019 — a number 63% up on the previous year.
Race director Adrian Bailey says he’s ‘‘pretty happy’’ with this year’s field, especially as many would-be competitors have pulled out due to Covid.
Most entrants are coming from south of Christchurch, though some are travelling from Auckland, Wellington and Nelson.
This will only be the second Peak to Peak under the ownership of the company behind the GODZone adventure race — it bought the event from founder Geoff Hunt, who’d run it since ’94.
