If you looked in the dictionary under adventure, there would supposedly be a picture of me driving a car – this, according to anyone who has sat in the passenger seat. That’s really overstated, though, and not only because I have mellowed (somewhat!) in the last few years, but because my brother’s picture is the one that Oxford should be tracking down.
Come Sunday, he will be traveling to New Zealand to compete (for the third time) in the famous Speights Coast to Coast Multi Sport Race. In one of the most grueling events of its type, participants must traverse the South Island of New Zealand from the Tasman Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Ryan is racing in the one-day Individual category, where he will cycle 140 km, run 36 km, 33 of them over the Southern Alps and kayak 67 km through the Waimakariri River.
He’s the only athlete from the Caribbean ever to participate in this race and will certainly be looking to improve his (very respectable) time from last year, when he finished in 14:49:09. The winner completed the course in 11:41:16. As a warm-up for this event, he recently won the Sports & Games River Raid Mountain Bike Race (recently held in Chaguaramas, Trinidad).
Speights should prove to be quite exciting and I believe there will be regular updates posted on their website – so follow the race at www.coasttocoast.co.nz
Four posts in one week! Happy to see you finally getting into the blogging groove.
Please wish Ryan the best of luck.
Will do! :O)
[...] Francomenz pays tribute to her brother Ryan Mendes, the only Caribbean athlete ever to participate in New Zealand’s famous Speights Coast-to-Coast Multi Sport Race. And both Francomenz and Richard Bolai visit the exhibition featuring the work of Trinidadian Carnival designer Wayne Berkeley. [...]
Best of luck “batch” …. see you on the 18th Feb