Task resources
Longest Day ‘Coast To Coast’ Multisport Event
The ‘Coast to Coast’ is a mountain race held annually in the South Island of New
Zealand. Participants begin at Kumara Beach on the West Coast, run, kayak, and cycle their
way over the Main Divide on their way to Sumner Beach on the east coast near
Christchurch. They cross a variety of terrain and are exposed to a wide range of
weather and track conditions as they complete the ‘Longest Day’. The race begins at
6am and first arrivals in the one-day event usually reach Sumner about 11 hours
later, with most arriving 3 to 4 hours after that. Expected total time from start to finish
is in the range of 11 to 17 hours.
Competitors have to manage their own fluid and food intake, clothing, and equipment
throughout the event to avoid problems such as heat stroke or heat exhaustion.
Typical fluid intake for stages of the event to compensate for water loss:
Stage One: 1–2 litres
Stage Two: 4–5 litres
Stage Three: 3 litres
Stage Four: 5 litres.
| Stage description | Local conditions | Map/terrain of the land |
| Stage One A 3km run followed by 55km cycle on sealed roads, gaining 500m elevation over the distance, reaching the Aickens transition – expected time 1.5 to 2.5 hours. | Stage One Temperature 14°C Wind speed 5km/h No rain | |
| Stage Two With a day pack, a 33km mountain run, along mountain tracks, through rivers, up riverbeds with some off-track running, cross Goat Pass at 1100m, and down into Mingha riverbed, cross Bealey River and run to Klondyke Corner – expected time 3 to 8 hours. | Stage Two Temperature drops to -3°C at Goat Pass Wind speed 30km/h Hail and rain | |
| Stage Three Cycle 15km on road, carrying warm clothing, 800m run down to 67km kayaking section, wearing kayak helmet through 25km flat braided river, followed by 25km gorge with Grade 2 rapids then 17km flat kayaking – expected time 4 to 8 hours. | Stage Three Temperature 16°C Wind speed blustery gusts to 45km/h Cloudy, rain stopped | |
| Stage Four Cycle 70km from Waimakariri Gorge to Sumner Beach on roads (road falls 250m over this section). | Stage Four Temperature rising to 35°C Wind speed gusts to 60km/h No rain, clear skies |
Wind chill factor calculator:
Summative Task explanation
Mr Kumar is very interested in entering the longest day event for the Coast to Coast race. This will require him to prepare himself and to take the right equipment for each of the four stages. He has come to you and asked for your help.
- Mr. Kumar needs information about his homeostatic systems
- Your first task requires you to take one of the stages and to create a system interaction flow chart for the three homeostatic systems you have studied. You will need to figure out the inputs into the systems (look at the weather conditions, the type of terrain, the activity, the amount of water required, etc.) and show how the homeostatic systems deal with this. Remember to include all the parts you need for your system as this will count towards your grade. In order to get a higher grade you need to show interactions between the systems. What this means is that you will show how one regulation system might affect another. You can do this with arrows going from one system to another and explaining how it affects it.
- After you have done your model, recommend to Mr Kumar what type of equipment/food he should take for that stage which will help the homeostatic systems to work.
- Mr Kumar’s friends also want to join the race. Many of them have different types of diseases which affect the homeostatic systems you have studied. Mr Kumar loves to be prepared and as such wants to know about potential diseases which may affect his various friends’ performance.
- Your first task is to choose a different stage than question 1 and create a diseased Remember to choose a disease which directly affects one system, don’t just choose any disease and try to relate it. In order to do this you will need to just draw a normal flow chart and in a different color, show how the disease will affect the different parts of the flow chart.
- At the end of the flowchart talk about if it is possible for the patient to participate and if they can, what extra things they would need in order to participate.
By the end you will need to submit (does not need to be in separate documents):
- Three normal flow charts which show the different regulation systems we learnt for one stage of your choice (remember to show interactions between the systems)
- Give recommendations of what Mr Kumar should take
- Flow chart of one regulation system which is affected by a disease
- Recommendation of what the affected person will need or should do in order to compete
