TRIATHLON

Currie's Coast win - one down, two races to go

By Braden Currie Multisport


Red Bull athlete BRADEN CURRIE, of Wanaka, savours his third consecutive
Speights Coast to Coast win.  Credit: marathon-photos.com.


After winning his third consecutive Speight’s Coast to Coast on Saturday, it is a case of one down and two events to go, over the next fortnight for Wanaka’s Braden Currie.

“It feels great to have Coast out of the way and to have had a really good race. Now it’s about enjoying my first full-distance Ironman Challenge Wanaka next Sunday and looking ahead to the OTU Cross Triathlon Oceania Championships the weekend after,” Currie (28) said.

The Red Bull endurance athlete fought hard for his victory over the 243km route across the South Island on Saturday, which started at 6am on the West Coast's Kumara beach, with athletes doing a 3km run, 55km cycle, 33km mountain run, 15km cycle, 67km kayak and finally a 70km cycle across the Canterbury plains.

Currie decided to push the pace from the beginning, hoping that it would affect his rivals to hold that speed more than it would affect him. The pace in the first bike leg in the 11 man break pack was as fast as ever despite the headwind. Braden then sprinted away from the leaders in the mountain run to eventually win in 11 hours and 27 minutes.

Currie had to find a new level of pace to hold off a fast-charging Sam Clark and he found the race “as challenging as it can get.”

“It was tough; definitely as hard as I’ve had to race in a while. But I believed I could do it so I’m pretty happy,” Currie says.

Clark tailed him closely in the mountain run, but Currie was confident that if he pushed as hard as he could and Clark tried to stay with him, he would “hurt him” and mange to pull away, which is exactly what happened.

Whakatane-based Clark came off the run just five minutes behind Currie, but he couldn't match his pace on the kayak and Currie lengthened the gap.

The 2015 winner did not have an easy last half of the race however, and had to battle through without nutrition or water on the kayak leg after his smoothie mix system jammed. To make matters worse, Currie pulled his water pipe out at the start of the 67 kilometre river section, leaving him with only five energy gels.

“It was really tough. I had points where I just wanted to stop and fix it but you just know they’d be precious minutes so you just cope without it and I just pushed and pushed and it was a really tough call not to fix it.”

A quick Eskimo roll-over on purpose to grab a few mouthfuls of water were enough to sustain him and he took more than a 10 minute lead into the final stage of the race.

The start of the cycle was the point he felt the race was within his grasp and Currie put his head down and rode into a cold head wind to claim victory at Brighton Beach, with his son Tarn (6) holding his hand down the finish chute.

Despite the toughness of the race, amazingly, today Currie says he is feeling great.

“The body is sore as it is bound to be and no doubt there will be fatigue there but I’m excited to switch from multisport to something new for me – my debut long distance triathlon,” Currie says.

He will spend the week focusing on hydration, nutrition, a few lake swims and having an ice bath to help his circulation, plus a couple of massages to get him in top condition to race again on Sunday.


BRADEN CURRIE’S UPCOMING EVENT CALENDAR

Feb 14 – Speight’s Coast to Coast.
Feb 22 – Challenge Wanaka.
Feb 29 - OTU Cross Triathlon Oceania Championships, Australia.
March 7 – Motatapu Xterra UDC Finance Triathlon, Wanaka.
April 11 - Paymark XTERRA Rotorua Festival.
April 18 – Asia-Pacific XTERRA Championships, Australia

Follow Braden at
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multisportbradencurrie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradenCurrie
Web: www.bradencurrie.com