KEY POINTS:
Not many 72-year-olds would contemplate doing a 172km multisport race, but Denis Lindesay of Opotiki almost views it as necessity.
"There's plenty of people around who tend to vegetate a wee bit as they get older, but there's no need for it," Mr Lindesay says.
"One of my thoughts is, I'd rather wear out than rust out. I'd rather die doing this than die of inactivity."
Mr Lindesay is training for the BayTrust Motu Challenge, a 172km mountain bike, cycle, run and kayak event in the rugged country around Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty on October 11.
He is the oldest person ever to enter the annual race, and one of a minority to do it solo rather than in a team.
Mr Lindesay shattered his knee while mountain biking near Mt Ruapehu last year, and had a hip replacement in 2000 after breaking his hip eight years earlier. He had not run since breaking the hip, and was dismayed when he began training for the 17km Motu run a month ago.
"I found I could do a geriatric hobble of about 30 metres," he says. "It was terrible. I was embarrassed."
But with persistence, he built up to 100m - the distance between power poles in Opotiki - and can now do "a fast geriatric shuffle" for 7km without stopping.
The retired draftsman hopes to complete the race run in a little over two hours and aims to finish the whole challenge in 10 1/2 hours: "That means I won't be last."
Mr Lindesay has never done a multisport race before, but finished a 600km bike ride through Australia's Simpson Desert in 1999, and is not fazed by the biking sections of the Motu Challenge.
"It's not a problem because I race around [Lake] Taupo ever year, full-on for five hours."
Last year, he came second in the 70-plus section of the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, and won the age group the year before. He is riding 55-100km in training six days a week.
Mr Lindesay plans to begin kayak training as soon as a loan craft from Ocean Kayak arrives this weekend.
He is following no special diet.
"I just eat a balanced diet, I don't eat a lot of garbage. If there's a cake of chocolate in the house, I do demolish it, so I don't buy it. I do have a wine or two in the evening."
Mr Lindesay and his wife retired to Opotiki from Auckland in February, and he said the colder winter was the only impediment to training.
"It's the worst part of it, the simple fact that it's utterly freezing."
His participation will raise money for Philips Search and Rescue Trust, which operates rescue helicopters in the central North Island. He was picked up by the Taupo-based Lion Foundation Rescue Helicopter when he smashed his knee on the remote 42nd Traverse road west of Mt Ruapehu last January.
* Donations can be made at www.fundraisingonline.co.nz.
