Michael Walker’s son, Jack, 7, drags him over the finish line at New Brighton Beach last Saturday. PICTURE: MARATHON PHOTOS LIVEPre-dawn winter training runs paid off for Queenstown lawyer Michael Walker when he competed in the Coast to Coast’s The Longest Day for the first time in nearly two decades. Walker tells Mountain Scene he raced in the tandem category the previous three Coast to Coasts, doing the whole course with a partner over two days. He also twice raced in the individual two-day category as a uni student before tackling The Longest Day for the first time as a 23-year-old in 2009. Also helping to fuel his motivation were the ‘‘pretty aggressive cut-off times’’ for The Longest Day competitors, in which they’re pulled from the course if they’re too slow.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 21, 2026 16:35 UTC