KEY POINTS:
His dad was always a master of drama in his day and Aaron Prince supplied a little of his own yesterday.
The 27-year-old was among the leaders on the mountain run and eventually finished a creditable sixth - but his day wasn't over when he crossed the finish line more than 12 hours after starting it on Kumara beach.
He was immediately ushered into the medical tent and was soon taken away to Christchurch hospital with hypothermia.
"I pushed hard all day, maybe a little too hard which is why I ended up here [in the medical tent]. I didn't realise I was cold at all," he said before being taken away to hospital.
He will surely be back, though, just like his father who competed in the Coast to Coast an incredible 16 times.
Russell was the winner of the 1987 event, when the main individual race reverted to a one-day race and he was also known as the man who set the standard for more than a decade when it came to the mountain run. Good runners in the event are often referred to as mountain goats - Prince was the head of the herd.
Legend has it, he once faked that he needed to tie his shoelaces in the hope other competitors would pass and leave him to run his own race. As he looked around, he found the others standing their waiting before one piped up, 'when you're ready, Russell'.
When he won the event in 1987, Prince emerged from the mountains 22 minutes ahead of his rivals but he was usually overtaken on the kayak leg by the likes of nine-time winner Steve Gurney and three-time champion John Jacoby and has a swagger of second and third-placed finishes.
It was by pure chance that he even entered the event, literally stumbling across it at Klondyke Corner in 1984 after a deer-hunting expedition near Arthur's Pass. He recognised one of the competitor's support crew, who yelled out, 'you'll have to do it next year'.
He did, but it was only going to be as part of a team - on the kayak leg. In the early days, all of the racers did a practice run over Goat Pass together and Prince ran with the favourite - causing everyone to wonder who this unknown runner was. "When my partner, who was going to do the mountain run, came in 90 minutes behind, he told me I was going to do the whole thing on my own. I finished fifth that year," Prince said.
Prince not only excelled in the Coast to Coast, he also claimed second place for New Zealand at the 1991 world ultra marathon and still holds the New Zealand record over the 100km distance.
It was almost inevitable Aaron Prince would follow his father in adventure sports. As a youngster, he was a member of his dad's support crew and he learned to run on riverbeds and over mountains when spending time at his grandfather's batch at Arthur's Pass.
He did the demanding Southern Traverse when he was 16, was second in the Coast to Coast's two-day individual race when 17 and has been a NZ orienteering champion.
"He's the same as I was at my peak," dad Russell declared. "He's still got a bit of maturing to do because he's only 27 and he will only get stronger."
Aaron has been lined up to join Richard Ussher's adventure racing team and he will surely be a contender in the Coast to Coast in years to come.
The event celebrated its 25th anniversary yesterday and Aaron is one of an emerging breed of second-generation competitors. Inaugural winner Joe Sherriff was back again this year crossing the finish line beside his son, who was doing it for the first time.
"When dad won the longest day [in 1987] I was seven," Prince said. "I was there supporting him and I remember it was pretty exciting. What is really cool is you see someone like George Christison with all of his kids there today and that was me a few years ago. I'm sure they will grow up and do the same thing."
By then they might know about the exploits of another Prince.
