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Speaker 1: The Coast to Coast kicks off today in the West Coast,

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Speaker 1: and organizers say they're expecting this year's elite longest daycad

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Speaker 1: agree to be one of the most thrilling and competitive

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Speaker 1: in the year's forty three year history. Coast to Coast

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Speaker 1: Race director Glenn Curry is up early and joins you now, Holly, Glenn.

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Speaker 2: How are you, Andrew?

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Speaker 1: I'm good. Sometimes when I do this show, I worry

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Speaker 1: that you know, you guys, the town isn't going to

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Speaker 1: wake up in time. But you've got a big day.

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Speaker 1: So you've been up for a while.

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Speaker 2: I bet yeah, And I know we start pretty early

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Speaker 2: over the next few days, so you know well and

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Speaker 2: truly up, and a lot of the athletes are up

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Speaker 2: to now and starting to roll into that first transition.

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Speaker 1: Excellent. How many athletes have you got over.

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Speaker 2: The two days. We've got total around seventeen hundred athletes

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Speaker 2: and we're about six thousand support crews. So that's what's

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Speaker 2: going to be moving across the South Island today.

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Speaker 1: Paint a picture for those who've never heard about the

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Speaker 1: Coast to Coast or even thought about the Coast to Coast.

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Speaker 1: I mean, what are these poor athletes facing.

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Speaker 2: So the Coast to Coast is forty three years old.

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Speaker 2: It starts on the west coast of the South Island

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Speaker 2: over I'm just just south of gray out here on

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Speaker 2: the beach on Serpentine Beach. The athletes basically from there

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Speaker 2: they cycle fifty five kilometers into the base of the

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Speaker 2: Southern Alps and then they across the Southern Alps through

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Speaker 2: a pass known as Goat Pass. The two day athletes

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Speaker 2: stay the night after that run at Klondike Corner on

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Speaker 2: the East coast, and then they cycle eighteen k before

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Speaker 2: kayaking seventy kilometers down the Wye Macerri River and then

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Speaker 2: finishing with a seventy k cycle to New Brighton Beach

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Speaker 2: and christ Church. And the one day athletes start tomorrow

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Speaker 2: and do the entirety of that in the in the day.

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Speaker 1: Basically sounds awful.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of smiling people around here. We would

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Speaker 2: argue it's a pretty special experience and if even coming

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Speaker 2: to have a look at the whole event is it's

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Speaker 2: pretty amazing. It's humanity at its beef og.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that. So there's the thing. You've got

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Speaker 1: loads of athletes, how many spectators actually make the trek

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Speaker 1: up to Goat Pass wherever in the hinterland to watch

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Speaker 1: this thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So Klondyke Corner is one of our busiest areas.

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Speaker 2: That's in the middle Arthurst Pass National Park and usually

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Speaker 2: you'd see the odd odd trembrough whatever camped up there.

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Speaker 2: But we'll have about seven thousand people kemp there tonight.

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Speaker 2: We basically set up the village for all the competitors

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Speaker 2: and supporters tonight, so we have a full village there

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Speaker 2: and there's a lot of entertainment down there today. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: and then on the finish line tomorrow at New Brighton,

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Speaker 2: you know, we get up to over ten thousand people basically, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: down at New Brighton tomorrow, so be exciting.

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Speaker 1: It sounds as big of th Mount Everest. So here's

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Speaker 1: the question, who's going to win?

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Speaker 2: Ah, that's yeah, and that that is a great question

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Speaker 2: this year. So we've got some incredible athletes, you know,

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Speaker 2: probably some of the big names that we've got some

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Speaker 2: mo Mao's actually going for the record of wins tomorrow

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Speaker 2: of six total wins and that'll be the most wins

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Speaker 2: of any female in the history of the event. And

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Speaker 2: then we've got a guy by the name of Sam Clark,

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Speaker 2: who's back. He's won the event a number of times

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Speaker 2: and he's fairly excited. But you know we have an

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Speaker 2: Australian and Australian hasn't run the event since nineteen ninety three,

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Speaker 2: and there's a really really TALENTEDUS Tralian and Alan Alex

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Speaker 2: Hunt's just you know, he's chomping at the bit and

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Speaker 2: he got second last year just so he'll he'll be

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Speaker 2: you know, he'll be here. We going for it and

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Speaker 2: then last year's winnehemous Elliott the men. Yeah, the race

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Speaker 2: is just going to be super close. That very exciting.

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Speaker 1: This has been a great interview and I thank you

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Speaker 1: so much. You know, good luck and I'm sure it's

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Speaker 1: going to go well. You sound like a good bloke

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Speaker 1: and I thank you. And that is Glenn Curry, who

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Speaker 1: is the race is the race director for the Coast

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Speaker 1: to Coast which kicks off today.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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