Coast to Coast Legends Going Head to Head in Wellington

On Sunday, endurance junkies from all ends of the country will be going Crazy in the Capital when the region's premier multisport event lines up in Lower Hutt for the 34th time.

Established in 1991, the 60k multisport event takes a scenic kayaking, mountain biking and running tour around the iconic outdoor elements of the Hutt Valley.

Event manager Michael Jacques has been participating, coaching and organising in the endurance sport community for 45 years. "We think the Fine Signs Crazyman is the second longest running multisport race in New Zealand," says Jacques.

"Only the Coast to Coast has been around longer and the Crazyman has been won by most of the sport's greats too, so it has a very real stature on the national scene."

The race of the day promises to be among two legends of both the Coast to Coast and the Crazyman. Reigning Coast to Coast Champion, Wellington's own Deb Lynch, is looking for her third Crazyman title. But she'll need to watch for endurance sport legend, Elina Ussher, who since moving from Finland to Nelson in 2007 has won four Coast to Coast titles and an amazing seven Crazyman titles.

Ussher last won the Crazyman in 2017, when she set the still‑standing women's record of 4hrs 16min 03secs. The 49‑year‑old is still a force to be reckoned with in any race, and even Lynch has not been able to break her record, recording 4hrs 19min and change in her wins in 2022 and 2023. Their match up this Sunday is much anticipated as they are very similar athletes, with kayaking being their weakness and running their strength. So the race for line honours could go right to the wire.

The two stars, however, would do well not to focus only on each other because two talented teenagers will be waiting in the wings if they falter. Wellington's Lucy Thorburn set a junior women's record in the Crazyman duathlon two years ago and the 18‑year‑old is now trying her first solo multisport race. Zoe Anderson is part of a mad‑keen multisport family in Whanganui. Last year she was part of a record breaking schools team, but at just 16 she is also making her solo multisport debut.

The men's race will be a matchup between top locals, Bruce Hughes (Wgtn) and Aaron Lynch (Por). The South African born Hughes was second in 2024 behind Whakatane's Sam Clark, but has been a winner at the Porirua Grand Traverse. While Lynch, the brother of Deb Lynch, has been second at the Porirua Grand Traverse and fourth at Crazyman in the past. Hughes is best in the kayak, while Lynch is best on the run, so the race is likely to come down to the 34k mountain on the Hutt River Trail and Belmont Regional Park.

It's great that the Crazyman has that reputation among the country's best multisporters," says Michael Jacques. "But multisport is first and foremost a people's sport" aimed at getting anyone of any age and ability into New Zealand's great outdoors. People like local stalwarts, Les Morris. Until 2023 Morris was the only person to have raced every Crazyman, but a heart surgery saw him miss the start in 2023. But he was back in 2024 and is back again in 2025.

Morris will be teamed with the eldest participant in this year's Crazyman, 69‑year‑old Porirua mountain biker Dave Wallace. Zoe Anderson will be the youngest solo multisporter, while Lower Hutt's own Mark Coffey will be the eldest solo multisporter at age 61.

Certainly, the Fine Signs Crazyman is something worth achieving. On a course that is as spectacular as it is challenging, it kicks off with a 13k kayak from Days Bay in Eastbourne and heads along Wellington Harbour's eastern coastline to Petone. Paddlers take in the historic Petone Wharf and finish in the lower reaches of the Hutt River at Sladden Park.

At Petone they swap kayaks for mountain bikes for a 34k ride up the Hutt River trail and over Belmont Regional Park. The route takes in a hidden tunnel and creek crossings, then peaks out for 360‑degree views from the 442m high Boulder Hill, before passing historic WWII ammunition bunkers and Wellington's oldest farm tracks to finish on dedicated mountain bike trails at the historic Stratton Street Woolshed.

Bikes are then swapped for running shoes for the 13k trail run over the edge of Belmont Hill and down the bush clad Korokoro Stream. Following a trail that was first used by Maori in pre‑European times, this run is as historic as it is spectacular and eventually finishes where European settlers first landed, on Petone Foreshore.

"With harbour swells, more than 1000m of vertical ascent and sometimes challenging weather," says Jacques, "the Fine Signs Crazyman is often called the race from hell. But the views are second to none and the weather is looking awesome, so I reckon it's "a hell of a race".

The 2025 Fine Signs Crazyman is scheduled for Sunday December 14th. See www.crazyman.co.nz for online entry and live entry lists.