Wanaka family to contest the GODZone adventure race

Photo caption:  The Murray family (left to right) Craig, Keith, Andrea and Charlie. Credit: Simon Bowden.

In what is believed to be a first worldwide, a family of four has teamed up for a multi-day adventure race.

The Murrays are not just any family and it is not just any race either. Keith (52), Andrea (50) and their two sons Charlie (18) and Craig (16) will contest New Zealand’s most prestigious adventure race, GODZone, which is set to take place in the majestic location and the Murray’s home town, of Wanaka, next year.

From February 27 until March 7, sixty teams of four people will race non-stop over seven days in and around the Lake Wanaka region. They must navigate their way through a course that will involve mountaineering, hiking, kayaking and mountain biking.

Fortunately, Keith and Andrea are accomplished athletes with a string of racing successes to their names both in New Zealand and abroad.

A GP with an interest in occupational and sports medicine, Keith moved to New Zealand in 1986 from his native Scotland. He began his racing career here soon after and competed in the country’s premier mountain running event, the 60 km Kepler Challenge through the Fiordland National Park – an event he was to win five times.

Shifting his attention to multi-discipline racing, Keith pitted himself against the 243km Coast to Coast. In 1992 and the following year he won the two-day race. Stepping up the longest day in 1994, Keith not only won the event but set an epic, record time of 10hours:34minutes:37seconds, which still stands today.

Keith recently proved he still has what it takes to tackle the big races, finishing fourth overall in Labour Weekend’s gruelling 153km, two-day Red Bull Defiance multisport race around Wanaka in the Breen Homes team with Lake Hawea’s Bob McLachlan.

After meeting Keith in Hawaii on a windsurfing trip in 1988, American-born Andrea only momentarily stalled her racing career after having their first child – Charlie - in 1996. The very next year she competed in her first Coast to Coast, winning the women’s section in 12:09:26, also setting a record which remains unbroken.

The Murrays did not let the birth of their second son Craig slow them. They began racing together in the Eco Challenge events in team Eco Internet. These four to five day events were the first big international adventure races to be held, after New Zealand’s Southern Traverse pioneered the way.

Andrea was the sole female, racing with her husband and two other male team mates and while the woman is often the team’s weakest link, her strength helped them to victories in Australia and Patagonia in the late 1990s, Keith says.

“I have total confidence in Andrea’s abilities and she is very strong not only physically but psychologically.”

She also had the advantage of being accustomed to the sleep deprivation that hounds adventure racers, through being a mother to their two young boys.

“Andrea and I remember hallucinating quite wildly while racing, at times,” Keith says, laughing.

With parents of this athletic calibre it is no wonder Charlie, Craig and their sister Fiona (13) are budding sports superstars. Mountain biking, skiing and running are their main individual pursuits and as a family unit, there are always adventures to be had.

“We’ve had lots of family trips where we’ve been rafting (including a recent trip down the Grand Canyon), kayaking and hiking, so they are all really skilled” Keith says, proudly.

Earlier this year Charlie, a University of Otago Engineering student, made his adventure racing debut competing in the GODZone 2014 race held around Kaikoura, and placing an impressive fourth with his team.

Craig attends Mount Aspiring College in Wanaka. It will be his first multi-day adventure race but he has competed in a number of shorter adventure and multisport races including winning the national schools adventure race, and has also won national titles in mountain biking and skiing. At the age of 15 he placed 3rd in the Routeburn Classic mountain running race.

When it was announced this year’s GODZone would be on their back doorstep, the boys hit their parents up to enter as a family team – initially eliciting a lukewarm response from Keith.

“I really thought I was done with all that pain and suffering but Andrea was keen and it was too good an opportunity to do it as a family to pass up. And we were very fortunate that Breen Homes, who built our wonderful new house in Wanaka, offered to support us to compete in the race - so off we go on a wonderful adventure,” Keith says.