The College team are the recipients of the Kathmandu Academy pack, which aims to support young people getting into the outdoors. As part of their prize, the trio of Alex Roderick, Jack Miers, and Adam Shears had a visit from nine-time men’s champion Steve Gurney. “It was great to get some tips from him,” said Shears.

“We got the chance to learn a few things about what to do and some, what not to-dos,” he added.

Shears, who has the honor of starting his team off on the first bike leg from Kumara Beach to Aitkins Corner as well as riding his team home on the final leg from the Waimakariri Gorge to New Brighton Beach, has already been clocking up the k’s completing a couple of rides in excess of 75kms.  

“Yeah, I’m starting to get into it a bit more, I’ve had a few hard rides and will crank them up a bit more now too.”

Shears also thanks Kathmandu for the prize pack, “It’s a big help, I don’t have to think about what to wear as that’s been provided and we don’t have to worry about the entry cost, so we can just get on and train.”

Classmate Alex Roderick is looking forward to heading into Goat Pass in the coming weeks in order to get ready to complete the run leg come February 7. “I’m very excited, really looking forward to the Mountain Run and having a good time with the boys.”

“Training has been hard, but fun as well, seeing my improvement go up and up has been great.”

Alex has been running four times per week, with runs up to 45 minutes each along with one run around two hours long each week as well.

Jack Miers recently completed the first few sessions of his grade two kayak certificate and is getting to know Rakaia river well with planned runs down the Waimakariri river over the Christmas period to help prepare him for race day. 

Mr Jarrod Coutts who runs the Outdoor Education department at Mt Hutt College said the boys are all showing good progression in their chosen disciplines and will be ready come race day if they keep up the hard work. “We're hoping their efforts can motivate the next batch of multi-sporters in the school and so far as a result we’ve already gathered good interest for multiple team in 2021.”