An after-school job coaching gym helped provide the money to buy the equipment to get out and enjoy the outdoors. “I was all by myself. I don’t know what drove me. It was just my way of connecting with myself and with nature. It made me feel good; I enjoyed it.”

Kristina was vaguely aware of the Coast to Coast the through the ski move “The Leading Edge”, which also included an earlier Judkins event, The Alpine Ironman. “We lived in Breaker Bay. There was no radio or TV reception. We had a little TV along with three movies. We just played The Leading Edge over and over. I was very aware of that kind of vibe. My brother was more aware of Coast to Coast and would talk me into running with him over the rocks in front of our home”.

Her first real Multisport sport event was the Crazyman in Wellington, and she also dabbled in mountain bike races. However, it wasn’t until she was aged around 20 and getting stuck into Uni that she also started getting more interested in events. 

The Tuatapere Challenge in 1995 was when Strode Penny started taking it a little more seriously, but the prime motivation was still centred around enjoying nature and the remoteness of the race. “I was miles out the back after the kayak, but then I started running. Even as I recall that run, and I get it with most races- I go to a place of utter presence and joy and I absolutely love it. Everything just sings ­– I love the challenge. I love pushing myself hard, I love breathing hard; it’s not like I’m cruising. I love the feeling of the intensity of what’s required in managing every footstep and obstacle. That and managing a head plan on getting my way through at various points- chunking it all down to small parts. When I’m in the moment, it just feels sooo good!” 

It didn’t just feel good- it clearly was better than good as Kristina strode through the women’s field to secure the win!

Academically, Kristina put her head down and did the work. After getting UE accredited, she headed to Dunedin at the end of the sixth form and completed a PhysEd degree with honours, and she then added another year to complete a BSC.

Her first visit to the Coast to Coast was in 1996. Kristina admits to a few nerves riding with the bunch early in the day, but she quickly found her happy place in the mountain run. “I remember passing the legendary Kathy Lynch at some stage and hearing some spluttering of f-bombs! I came into Klondyke Corner and heard over the loudspeaker, “here we have the first woman (shuffling of papers)… Penny Strode! I came into transition and went off to the toilet. Kathy Lynch stormed into transition, and I could hear her saying, “who the f… is that woman?” Lynch flew past somewhere after Bealey on the way to Mount White Bridge and secured her fifth and final title, with Kristina rolling into Sumner in an impressive second-place finish.

1997 was the year of Andrea Murray. Her time of 12 hours and 9 minutes still hasn’t been beaten to this day (although course adjustments make that a little tougher these days). For the first time in her life, Kristina focussed seriously on her training, but her single-mindedness didn’t pay dividends, with stress fractures and asthma making for a tough build-up and an even more difficult race. Eventually rocking home in sixth, it took Kristina two years to get her busted body back on track.

Her next appearance at the Coast to Coast didn’t come until 2004, but it was in the intervening years that her reputation took off. As recovery plans go, Kristina’s was out there. “Part of my plan was to bike around the world (gales of laughter).” 1995 Coast to Coast champion Ian Edmond wanted to bike to Belgium to see his girlfriend and invited her along. They started in Singapore and spent the next nine and a half months making the journey.

Edmond became hugely influential in Strode Penny’s career, recognising her broad skillset (particularly mountaineering) and inviting her to the Eco Challenge. Multiple other adventure races followed as she became a very much in-demand teammate. Victory in the length of New Zealand race increased her profile with the wider public, but a return to the Coast to Coast was still a few years off. “It was always there in the background, but I’d be shattered from the adventure racing season and January and February would tend to be my time off.”

A highly focused Kristina eventually returned to the Coast to Coast in 2004 in what turned out to be a rather dramatic day on many different levels. Some things you can’t control – the weather being one factor, but also a mechanical issue. It turns out that the bikes had fallen over on the rack at Kumara Junction and had hastily been put back in place. What Kristina didn’t realise as her heart rate went through the roof and bunches rode past was that her rear brake had locked on in the fall. All the rock stars were fading into the distance up the road, but she maintained her focus and tried to keep a cool head. Suddenly a hairy-legged dude with a backpack rolled up beside her on his scruffy old bike. “I was on a beautiful set-up bike, all the best gear, and that was when I pulled over.” She quickly diagnosed the problem. “I was miles back by then, but I got back on, and a guy called John Ellerm rode up beside me and recognised me. He was surprised to find me as far back as I was, and I explained what had happened. He very generously let me sit on his back wheel through to transition. He probably sacrificed his race, and I was very grateful to him.”

While it is true that Ellerm had a DNF that day, the reasons were unlikely to have been Kristina’s making. The weather in the mountain run was appalling, and eventually, Race Director Robin Judkins closed the course at the end of the run, with many failing to make it into their kayaks in a rising Waimakariri River. The run was naturally Kristina’s happy place, but she, along with eventual second-place finisher Jeanette Gerrie and third-placed Emily Miazga were the only women allowed to continue. Strode Penny punched through the cold conditions but describes herself as being “green” when she exited the boat at Gorge Bridge. “I was running up to the bike and thought, I don’t feel too good. I started vomiting, and it pretty much carried on all the way to Sumner Beach!” Her maiden victory was secured, but there was no basking in glory at the finish line as she disappeared off to the medical tent, where the body shut down completely!

Twelve months later, the newly married Kristina Anglem was back to defend her title. She says she was in a far more relaxed frame of mind in 2005. “I was thrilled to be there and around other competitors. I just flew - I couldn’t get enough - absolutely loved it!” So back-to-back wins secured, sixth overall, and only an hour behind men’s winner Richard Ussher!

At that point, the new Mrs Anglem felt very positive about her future in the race, but her abilities had been noted elsewhere and her career took a surprising new twist. “I got a letter from (six-time Olympic kayaking gold medalist) Ian Ferguson asking me if I’d be interested in paddling K1 at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?”

The women almost ended up qualifying a boat in the K4. “We needed to make a qualifying time twice, and we made it once. As we were lifting the boat off the water, I popped my back – literally blew a disc. That was in the Czech Republic”. Surgery followed, but the Olympic dream was effectively over.

“It was a reasonably sudden and difficult end to a career in sport, and that took some adjusting. I wasn’t prepared and had set my sights on getting to Beijing, which was within our grasp. It wasn’t a satisfying end, but that’s just the way things go!”

However, she admits that paddling K1 and K4 didn’t hold the same passion as being amongst nature and embracing the outdoors. “It was like paddling on the sewers and canals of Europe in water that flicks onto you, and your skin itches. No offence to paddling, but it’s a different world, and for me, the joy and uplift I get from being out in nature are what I do the sport for.”

Fast forward to the present, and family is everything to Kristina. Husband Nat is a respected sports doctor in Christchurch with an impressive sporting pedigree, which saw him narrowly miss selection for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada. The couple has three children- two boys and girl. “Nothing beats kids- my family now is the most important thing to me over everything, which is why I’ve never gone back to competing. I love being with them, being out in nature with them, and experiencing their challenges.”

Is a return to the Coast to Coast ever possible? “(Laughter) The competitive days are over, but if one of the kids ever wants to enter the tandem team event with me……who knows? I can’t really keep up with my eleven-year-old on the bike now!”

Words by Brian Ashby