Teams step up to compete

Business teams are in training for the Country2Coast challenge. Photo / File

Runners and walkers are readying themselves for this month's Hawke's Bay Today Country2Coast event.

With just three weeks to go until the challenge, the serious runners and walkers are in training.

The more leisurely strollers are simply looking forward to the event, which uses the Hawke's Bay trails and takes in some fabulous Hawke's Bay scenery.

There are both serious and non-competitive runners in the Tumu Group team which will take to the trails on Sunday, April 26. The group has entered a team every year since 2011 and numbers have increased every year.

"We have 29 staff and family members signed up for this year's event, from Tumu Timbers and Tumu ITMs in Napier, Hastings and Havelock North," says event co-ordinator Sarah Hughes from Tumu Timbers.

"They are going in everything from the 8km walk to the 20km run. We have some very competitive runners involved so it's pretty exciting. Tumu Timbers' management is very supportive and encourages healthy living, so we enter a few different events throughout the year. We haven't run any formal training sessions but I have been sending emails out letting people know how close the Country2Coast is getting, so they can be fit and ready."

Not that the staff have needed reminding, as many had been asking "when's it coming up?" she said.

"We're really looking forward to it. We will have a tent set up and probably a barbecue afterwards so we can catch up on how everyone went."

For the 40-strong team from Hastings City and Havelock North New World supermarkets, this year is their first crack at the event.

"It's a great team-building exercise and a chance for our families to get together outside of work, as well as a way to encourage fitness," a team spokesman said.

"Some of them have organised training groups and are getting quite serious. We have a big group doing the 15km walk but haven't been able to talk anyone into tackling the 20km run yet.

"If it goes as well we will definitely be doing it again next year."