AMP Multisport Race
Race lures old hand out of retirement
David Dawkins - The Marlborough Express / 28.09.2007
The 60 year-old owner of the Blistered Foot Cafe and Tirimoana House bed and breakfast has been lured out of retirement to take on the 52km course that winds right past his front door at Anakiwa.
"I did quite a bit of multisport when I was younger but I hadn't done anything for about 12 years and was happily in retirement until Peter (race director Peter Yarrell) came along.
"He twisted my arm and now I find myself out training night and day," Hotham laughed.
The former Coast to Coaster has plenty of company on his runs with little black poodle Shug his constant companion as he pounds the Queen Charlotte Track on training runs. For the former Aucklander the opportunity to compete on the course that takes competitors through the natural beauty of the Sounds was too much to pass up.
"What works for me is that you're running on the Queen Charlotte Track from Mistletoe Bay to Anakiwa which is just a dream then the cycle to Picton is as good as you can get followed by a paddle through the Sounds.
"The distances are about right for a venerable person such as myself too."
The race, that has ventured outside Canterbury for the first time in its 13 year history, will give competitors a first hand view of the beauty of the Sounds.
The continuing popularity of the race along with escalating compliance costs has forced the race out of Canterbury's Port Hills and into the comparative quiet of the Marlborough Sounds.
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