Interstate and international competitors have shown their passion for the Three Peaks Race this year, flying in from as far afield as New Zealand.
Former Tasmanian Adrian Young has travelled from Canterbury, NZ, to compete in his third race with Sullivans Cove Whisky. His running partner, Andrew Howse, is a Sydney-based Kiwi.
``I've never run further than 45km in my life, so I'm a bit nervous,'' Howse said.
``I've been doing quite a lot of sailing on a 28-footer in Sydney.''
Sydney-sider Brendan Davies (Apollonius) heard of the race through sporting magazine Alpha.
``It sounded great and I thought `I want to have a go at that','' the long-time runner said.
``I put my name on the Three Peaks website and one of the guys from a catamaran called me, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it on a cat - but I found myself a nice big boat to do it on.''
Tasmanian runner Grant Houniet also found himself a bigger boat, crewing for Victorian Charles Meredith for the second year but this time on a 46-foot cruising catamaran. He is so confident in his sailing ability that ``I even brought my own bucket this year’’. Houniet is hoping to put in his best run to date, with partner John Winsbury from Canberra, who is in incredible form, running 2hours20min marathons.
Sydney Morning Herald journalist Jim Nixon also flew in last night and couldn't speak highly enough of our ``iconic Tasmanian event''. He joins the Pisces crew for the fourth time with good friend and skipper David Taylor.