Ride: From ultra-cycling rookie to racing across America

At his brother’s wedding in 2002, 30-year-old Josh Kench sat with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, and announced that he was going to do the Coast to Coast. His pronouncement was met with derision, but he’s proved his doubters wrong.

Josh won the 2010 Lake Taupo Extreme Enduro, covering a mind-numbing eight laps of the 160-kilometre course in 55 hours. And that’s only the start of it. In June 2011, this 39-year-old plumber lined up at the start of the Race Across America - a 16-day race covering 4828 kilometres from California to Maryland.

This is the story of how an ordinary bloke became an ultra-endurance athlete and decided to take on the world.