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[Music] D and welcome to my podcast thanks Dom it's uh it's big privilege to be here
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I've enjoyed listening to your podcast for a long time and I'm actually a
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longtime fan dating back to 2x sfm in palon North as a teenager growing up in Foxton listening to the Mike Weston baly
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show so that's a blast from the past oh yeah yeah you're you're a you're a
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Foxton boy so your life could have gone two ways like either professional sport or the nomad's gang totally thankfully I
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think the nomads gang have moved on but um yeah it was very as a kid to be walking down the street of Foxton and be
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surrounded by gang members and things but yeah from my um memory it was never a big deal either to be fair um hey it's
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great having you here today of all days um I only realized when I went on social
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media this morning it's your birthday ah yes yeah yeah it's my birthday 39 today
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39 my mom text me this morning saying you've entered the final year of your fourth decade on planet Earth or
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something to that effect and I thought that was pretty depressing way to look at it so yeah so so yes so you've worked
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all day at Team New Zealand um you're doing the podcast now is your family family up for the weekend or are they
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still in wah uh they're still wanka based so my wife and I've got a 9 and a
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seveny old um they're back home so unfortunately don't get to spend my birthday with them but um we're we're
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living a a life we realize is pretty special so yeah there's small compromises that happen along the way
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and that's one of them but still depressing birthday so what are you doing tonight I'm going to go spend
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actually my birthday with my uncle and auntie and reua which would be really nice cuz uh yeah I've I've been very
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lucky uh to have a really sort of supportive and loving family my whole life really and and so yeah I get to go
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and enjoy it with them yeah actually you shed um a a card or a note on social media from um was it your son or your
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daughter uh Matilda my daughter yeah happy birthday Daddyo JoJo what what is going on there that's a lot you'll have
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to ask seveny olds they they've got an imagination but um yeah know that was
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sweet yeah so um DG Allen for anyone it's quite funny because um you you're
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such a famous guy but you there'd be a lot of people that have no clue who you
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are yet if you plant you on the right place say the finish line of the coast to coast uh there'd be a line of people
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wanting selfies with you you know in certain circles um you're very very well
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known but you're a fascinating guy nonetheless and that's going to be an
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honor to profile your story oh thanks very much Don yeah so uh New Zealand multisport Legion now Tim New Zealand
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crew member two Coast to Coast winner 2019 2021 uh and nine Coast to Coast podiums and 10
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races yeah the coasta coast was a big part of my life and I I focused on it very heavily probably in two chapters
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really there was chapter one where I was doing everything I could to try and win
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the race and ended up coming up short time and time again I went away from that and sort of got more into I guess
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longdistance Tron for a while and came back to the coasta coast in that second chapter I had a couple of Victories so
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yeah it was a big part of my life though spanning probably I don't know 12 15
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years yeah and like to get on the podium that many times remarkable like it's uh
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I mean it's such a pivot it's an event that every New Zealander knows about
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right yeah it is and it's um it surprises me the profile it has internationally too to be honest the
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coast to coast you go around the world like I was very lucky I got to race overseas and different sort of
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capacities and different sports and events and everywhere I went uh people you know you try to explain what you did
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back home oh so I do multisport oh what's multisport kaying running biking um and they sort of look a bit puzzled
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and you go oh we've got an event back home called the coast to coast and then
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their eyes light up oh the coast to coast I know they're Coast to Coast so amazing how it's somehow got this um
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yeah reach that spans across the world yeah and and it it it surprises me endlessly that it's so um it's got so
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much mainstream popularity because um it's um it's not for [ __ ] is it you
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know the goats pass is a hell of a run and then you've got the the grade to kayak which is is what 70 K yeah correct
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it's a bloody it's a crazy event and the fact that it's um had this cut through
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and uh now there's like a weit list um for people trying to get in it's it's
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incredible really yeah yeah I it's sort of a writer passage in many ways as a
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kiwi I mean I'm not saying that and that you know everyone who considers themselves kiwi should go and do the
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coast to coast not at all um but there's something in our DNA as kiwis I think
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that we all have some sort of connection to Nature and a New Zealand nature really involves rivers and mountains and
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beaches and obviously with the coast to coast you start at one beach you move through the mountains and rivers and
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land at a beach on the other side of the country so there's just something about
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it I think that uh kiwis and their very DNA can relate to in some way that's
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cool it's cool and you're part of the fabric of that history you know there's
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there's a bunch of names that you associate with um coast to coast and you're one of those names yeah that's
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crazy to consider oh it is it is really it's cool Goosebumps actually just thinking about that Steve gy um who else
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was there user yeah Richard Usher was a huge um you know he was my idol I suppose when I came into the sport and
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then eventually I sort of had to try and stop thinking of him as an idol because
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I was busy trying to beat the guy but um yeah in my eyes I'd say Richard Usher
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would be probably the best athlete that ever won the race Steve gy obviously won
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the most races and he was a talent too and uh but yeah Richard Usher was just someone who I think took that race to a
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home whole new level and brought professionalism to that race too we'll get more into the into the coast to
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coast later because there's a lot to unpack there um but you just before we get into it what do you what what do you
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say would be at the age of 39 your top three career highlights so far gee there's a good question uh you know
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making it into Emirates Team New Zealand would be definitely a career highlight completely unexpected and something I'm
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very proud of winning the coast to coast there's a huge backstory to that and so
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yeah that would certainly be one as well and then probably third would be um winning an event unfortunately doesn't
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exist anymore it was challenge Monica when it was an Iron Man distance event and simply because that was the hometown
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race and again it took a bit of um perseverance I suppose to get to the top of that race and and won it on a day
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where there was a really classy professional field and I just remember running to the Finish Line past I sort
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of knew every second person I was running past that day so yeah that'd be my top three I and and you're the you're
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the course record holder for challenge Monica yeah yeah luckily for me though that that long distance side of the
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event doesn't exist now so I'm pretty it's safe it's loged in Lo forever okay
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let's talk about the team New Zealand this is um I think part of the cool thing about life so you know you're in
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your your late 30s I suppose you're thinking where's my athletic career going from now maybe you're at the Apex
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maybe you can keep going like Cameron Brown I I don't know what your plan was
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and then out of the blue something like the opportunity to you know Join one of our major national teams like Team New
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Zealand comes along so what's the story so was it was it Nick Gill I read that
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Nick Gill the um all black strength and conditioning coach he uh shoulder tapped
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you y you friends uh yeah we we met through uh he does Iron Man New Zealand or did Iron Man New Zealand no Iron Man
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Australia I think was his big one either way we met through Iron Man we um yeah and I've I studied physical education
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was really interested in you know uh Sports Science strength and conditioning and he's obviously world class you know
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with with the All Blacks worked as the strength he's been there forever I think
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I think he was there in Seaford Patrick probably um so anyway I think with the The Team New Zealand thing what they
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were looking for in this cup was they called cyc laws which are people that can push good power on a bike and uh I
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guess what people probably get a bit confused by is if you need good cyclists on the boat why don't you have you know
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t paga or you know two to France cyclists and and the reason in simplistic terms is the boat the
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America's Cup boat need absolute power put into it those top cyclists are really good because they have good power
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to weight ratio so if you imagine your typical successful cyclist they're going
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to be quite strong on the bike but they're also going to be quite small human beings really so cycs generally
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are bigger Mass 90 to 100 kilo and the total power they can put into a bike is actually better than a to to France
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Rider which blows some people's minds but it sort of makes sense right if you've got another 30 kilo of muscle on
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your skeleton you're going to produce more power so so long story short what
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they were looking for was a very unique type of human someone who can ride a bike really well but it's also quite a
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big specimen so it became a little bit of a shoulder tapping exercise because they needed specific qualities to come
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and trial for the team so rowers made really good trialists uh track cyclist I was probably a bit of an odit in that I
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came from a multisport background but yeah that's essentially what took place
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and then we all showed up and showed our best hand on a bike and those that were
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good enough got chosen how many are there six uh there are nine cycle ORS to cover four positions on the boat for
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each Race So teams can sort of decide how they want to play their hand there um by the time the America's cut rolls
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around there could be two races a day weather depending and they they're usually spaced quite quickly apart maybe
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10 minutes between races so what you're likely to see as you know a group of cyc
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laws go on the boat for the first race climb off it fresh leagues perhaps climb on it for that second race not
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necessarily but it's probably what you'll see and who is some of the some
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of the big guns is Hamish Bond one yeah Hamish Bond y right Hamish Bond who was um won two Olympic gold medals with Eric
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Murray and then um made the commo games like a road cyclist yeah yeah unre way huge engine um cool obviously being
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privy to his training and and calling him a teammate's been pretty awesome yeah incredible and Simon vanoven is he
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to one yep that's right that that [ __ ] so you're from Foxton he's from Fielding
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cl to biggest legs I've ever seen on a human being yeah he's got big Trunks and
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yeah big ticker too he knows how to hurt himself uh brings huge experience of course bronze medalist in the Kieran
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race on the track uh when was that must have been London maybe he was actually bought into Team New Zealand in 2017 for
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the Bermuda cup which some people might remember was where New Zealand kind of surprised the world with these cycling
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Grinders so um he was yeah big big part of the shift from hand riding to what we've got now which is cycl yeah so um
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yes so so you get asked if you want to take part and then um what's involved in
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the testing I've seen a photo of you um at the I don't know if it was just one
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test or a series of tests but there's one where you're just like crouched over
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the bike you look completely spent and um like it's it's just a still image but
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you Blair ch's got his hand on your shoulder yeah yeah um that that I mean you've got a big ticker um and you're
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used to putting yourself in pain um but you look like a damaged man at that point yeah it probably tells you
00:11:30
everything you need to know about the trials they were so hard really and see this is you saying that yeah yeah yeah I
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mean I I guess with events like the coasta coast you might race for 11 or 12 hours and because of that you've sort of
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got to pace yourself at a certain level of exertion uh the requirements I mean in America's cut race will probably take
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20 to 30 minutes so you're all in for that period of time the intensity is so
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much higher and so for me with the trials um I it it was a relatively unfamiliar feeling for my
00:12:02
body to push that hard and of course you sort of got an opportunity on the line so you're going to go even deeper than
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you'd normally be able to go so yeah I was I was pretty spent by the end I'm
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probably still recovering that was nearly two years ago so what is the test exactly well
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there was a bunch of tests they basically wanted to look they sort of wanted to profile your ability on a bike
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right so they wanted to know how hard you could Sprint for a short period of time but also how how well you can push
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for a longer period of time perhaps to sort of simulator in America's Cup race
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so there was a few different tests and from that they they could kind of decide who was bringing the right qualities to
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the team right and so out of the the nine people that end up getting those jobs like do do you like I wonder like
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you and you and Hamish Bond like were you were you the the best in terms of your output on the bike or do you think
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there's part of it that you're there for what you can bring in terms of like
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mental skills and experience with um your sporting careers yeah it's a good question and I probably don't fully
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understand how those decisions were made ultimately um obviously being a good strong cyclist was a a factor but they
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were probably also looking at it a little bit more holistically like personalities that would work within the
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team culture um maybe some bik qualities that will complement other bike qualities so like I'm not the best
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Sprinter in the team there's other guys that can do huge power compared to me um
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one of my strengths is more kind of sustained effort for a longer period of time so yeah they'll probably trying to
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B balance quite a few sort of qualities across their squad of nine pyc laws I guess yeah I'm guessing on the boat
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there's um there's data as well so over on knows what you're doing and how
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you're performing so there's there's no place to hide no there's yeah certainly
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accountability in terms of performance but it's good it's um sort of internal
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uh competitive culture which you know my wife's in real estate and she deals with
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that on a day-to-day basis too you know competition amongst colleagues and it's
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no different in our team we we yes we want to sort of beat each other but we know that and so doing where hopefully
00:14:00
that Rising tide that raises all boats or whatever that's saying is you know
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we're all and we that's what we see is by going out to kick each other's ass on
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a daily basis we're all getting better as a result yeah of course yeah you drive and motivate each other so so so
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when you have one of the races uh like a proper race say 20 or 30 minutes whatever it was you said um is it like a
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burst of a few minutes going hard and then you sort of sitting back relaxing or are you pedling the whole time or
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well again I I mean I'm probably giving quite blurry answers but it's so much of
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it depends right like conditions it can depend on how strong the winds blowing or in Barcelona you get a big sea state
00:14:35
so that sort of affects things as well um but I think you know I I haven't raced an America's Cup yet but some of
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the guys have and by all accounts we can just expect to go to the well and basically Drive ourselves as hard as we
00:14:50
can for that period of time so sometimes that's all you want to know really yeah
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you don't want any more details then you're probably going to did it die well
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yeah yeah and also yeah clearly defined roles that's good yeah if you know exactly what you got to do um so do have
00:15:04
you had to have like a crash course in sailing or anything like that um yeah I mean a crush course kind of came as a
00:15:11
result of joining the team and just getting stuck into rolls around the shed I mean pyc laws are primarily there to
00:15:18
put power through the pedals on the boat but um as is the classic sort of kiwi way we also like to roll our sleeves up
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and get involved in and around the team in other ways as well there's 150 plus people that make up Team New
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Zealand people don't realize just quite how big the team is wow lot of moving
00:15:36
Parts you got Electronics Hydraulics um you know mechatronics you've also got
00:15:41
all the other things a lot of companies need like accountants and lawyers and so
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there's a huge um series of moving parts that kind of have to all fit together to
00:15:50
bring a winning boat to the to the event and so as cycs we'll often just basically as I say roll our sleeves up
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and help out where we can which is been pretty cool cuz I've learned lots of new
00:16:00
skills and you know I wasn't really a Trader beforehand I'm certainly still
00:16:04
not a Trader but I'm probably a little bit closer than I was before I started
00:16:07
with the team yeah so so what does what does an average day look like you weren't today's a beautiful day in
00:16:11
Oakland but you weren't on the water today no I didn't sell today we um will'll certainly aim to sail tomorrow
00:16:17
sailing a lot at the moment in the new boat because we sort of want to learn as much from it as we can before we have to
00:16:22
ship it across to Barcelona for the event um and so today the boat was on Shore but sometimes the non-selling days
00:16:29
can be busier than the sailing days cuz it's an opportunity for all the people
00:16:32
that do all the important stuff behind the scenes to sort of catch up yeah and it's and how does it work in terms of
00:16:37
payment and stuff you you want just on like a salary yeah yeah exactly it's like um any other job I suppose um I was
00:16:45
coached for a lot of my later career in multisport by Gordon Walker who listeners might know is the coach of
00:16:51
Lisa Carrington and uh we sort of had a little bit of a laugh together when I made it into Team New Zealand because I
00:16:58
was finally a professional athlete you know I was I was doing multisport and Trion for so long that uh you know it
00:17:05
was the first time I was on a salary to do my sport so that was it must it must be nice for you to have an income
00:17:10
because um yeah multisport there's not a lot of money in it really is there it's
00:17:13
hard it's hard work yeah I think I I I I did enjoy that side to the sport for a
00:17:19
number of reasons I've seen you know other sports especially sports with a lot of money with that comes a lot of
00:17:25
problems and challenges right you know people used to say oh we never worried that some of your competitors were
00:17:30
taking drugs and things and I I just know that multisport is still such a pure sport people do it because they
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love to be outside and and in the hills and meeting other people like that's
00:17:42
there's a real innocence to multisport that I loved so yeah I mean it was always a challenge to uh make it you
00:17:49
know a viable Pursuit especially when I started having a family and things like that but um Yeah you sort of had to
00:17:56
think outside the square a little and yeah I sort of made it work but yeah yeah and and um yeah how are you finding
00:18:02
the um transition from like being a solo athlete to being part of a team yeah that's been a huge highlight yeah sure
00:18:09
yeah yeah um I mean did a lot of adventure racing I know Simone M's been on the show before her and I were lucky
00:18:17
to travel the world and race together you're you're part of a team in that
00:18:20
regard but with the coast to coast I I used to think you know I had a team I had my family my physio my massage
00:18:26
therapist there was people in your corner but but it's not quite the same as you know when we go sailing and you
00:18:32
you literally set sail on a yacht and it's you and seven others and together
00:18:36
you guys are making this boat fly across the water it's it's a pretty amazing
00:18:40
sense of belonging to a to a group that have a you know a unified goal that comes in October this year yeah so I
00:18:47
went for a run a couple of couple of weeks ago like 6:00 a.m. 7: a.m. with um BL chuk and that he he was about to go
00:18:53
for a game of touch rugby after that like a morning game of touch rugby were you part of the touch rugby Squad no
00:18:59
cycl are usually training at their time but really you miss out on the good stuff miss out on the touch yeah but
00:19:05
it's um I mean that's a good example of how the team sort of coexist right like
00:19:09
yeah they they genuinely enjoy being around one another and I think yeah it's
00:19:15
no wonder that the team currently have the America's Cup because together they're a pretty powerful force and I
00:19:21
remember BL saying years ago something about it if if if anyone makes it on the news or they get some publicity they
00:19:27
have to like shout morning tea sh some beers oh that's news to me yeah so I was
00:19:31
going to ask like are you going to get in trouble doing a podcast oh I'll probably cough a bit of
00:19:36
flck um yeah one more thing so when when you're on that boat and it's um it's
00:19:42
like you know unreal pain pain that you've never experienced before do you like what sort of techniques do you have
00:19:47
like do you have a a mentor that you focus on um do you count do you what do you do yeah I suppose um I mean it's not
00:19:55
unfamiliar anymore for me you know like I've spent probably two decades kind of
00:19:59
taking myself to a place uh where that sort of physical exertion can kind of create some big question marks in your
00:20:07
head and you sort of got to come up with answers on the spot and work your way through it and that sort of thing but uh
00:20:12
I think you actually mentioned counting there and I didn't even realize I did it
00:20:16
until quite recently I think someone else asked me the same question how do you sort of get through intervals and
00:20:21
stuff and the next thing I know I'm doing these intervals and they're just
00:20:24
so hard and I'm counting backwards from 50 and that was that moment where I was
00:20:28
like oh I must count I hadn't actually consciously realized I count but yeah so
00:20:33
that's one way I do it intervals might take 5 minutes or two minutes but regardless they're bloody tough and
00:20:40
so yeah I think um counting's maybe a bit of a distraction but I also for as
00:20:45
long as I can remember I've um found that if I become quite present and actually rather than uh trying to fight
00:20:55
away the pain or resist it if I actually sounds almost bit weird saying it because it you know I don't speak it out
00:21:03
loud very often but I think what I do is I I sort of embrace it like I I go right
00:21:09
you know you you're breathing heavily your heart rate's through the roof sweat
00:21:13
pouring off you but if you actually Center your thoughts and go is what I'm doing right now manageable can I live in
00:21:20
this situation that I'm in right now you go yeah I can stay here for a bit longer
00:21:24
if I need to and so I become really present and I like that for me personally because it's no longer me
00:21:31
versus the pain it's like oh the pain is part of me and that's all good I mean I
00:21:36
make it sound like it's spiritual it's not at all it sucks no it does sound
00:21:41
kind of spiritual but but then you're like you're a Savage I feel like you're
00:21:44
a sucker for punishment so um yeah but if you can if you can somehow compartmentalize it like that I think
00:21:50
it's a good way of managing it yeah all right um oh and who's going to Barcelona
00:21:55
is your wife and kids going yeah they'll come over eventually yeah so I'll be
00:21:59
there for a big stint probably uh four and a half 5 months that we're there uh
00:22:04
and so Amy and the kids will come over maybe sort of halfway through that trip so I'll be really looking forward to
00:22:09
seeing them by the time they get there and and parents or anything are they coming over parents probably won't um
00:22:14
they they're still living in Foxton and you know trip to paliston North is probably a good good day out for them so
00:22:20
um or maybe Wellington um so Barcelona's probably a bit far away but uh yeah I'm
00:22:25
I'm hoping there'll be a few friends and things that that'll be there for the cup
00:22:29
yeah it's it's it's surreal are you much of like a goal Setter or a planner do
00:22:34
you know like not explicitly but in recent times actually since joining Team New Zealand I've come up with a few
00:22:40
little goals in my head around certain I guess metrics on the boat that I've or
00:22:44
sorry metrics on the bike that I've wanted to achieve But to answer your question not really
00:22:49
no yeah I suppose I was asking it like 5 years ago you could never have foreseen
00:22:54
this as something you'd be doing especially in the final year of your 30s it's crazy and it's cool totally yeah
00:23:00
it's really cool yeah and that's probably um how how things have sort of
00:23:05
worked for me in my whole kind of adult life I mean I I started doing multisport
00:23:10
originally because I was getting concussion on Rugby and had to stop playing rugby and uh I you know
00:23:16
multisport was sort of coming to a bit of an end for me with the coast to coast I my last race was particularly hard and
00:23:23
um the next thing you know that door's sort of closing and this one open so it's funny when you reflect you go all
00:23:29
these kind of roadblocks as they seemed at the time actually created opportunities that you didn't know
00:23:35
existed beforehand yeah I you just mentioned the motorport thing was coming to an end for you um yeah why why you
00:23:42
feel like you were losing competitiveness why couldn't you keep going what about Cameron Brown yeah yeah
00:23:48
no age goal is there he's he's like 50 he's unal yeah yeah yeah I don't think
00:23:53
there'll be too many people like cam Brown now or ever again but um I mean for me it was yeah the the coast to
00:24:02
coast probably would have always had a shelf life it's um it it had given me a
00:24:06
lot for a long time but um I had wed a couple of times and unfortunately or fortunately whichever way you look at it
00:24:14
I was either going to go back and win again or it's going to be a failure CU I
00:24:18
didn't win it sort of thing so the Purity that came early on of just going there and and having your best race
00:24:25
focusing on the process sort of enjoying the whole kind of day itself regardless
00:24:30
of the outcome those days were long gone so there was yeah a lot more pressure it's it's funny to think back I mentally
00:24:38
I coped a lot better leading into an on race day early in my career by the end of it my last couple of races I was
00:24:46
getting a lot more anxious leading into the race I was yeah I certainly wasn't
00:24:49
in the same sort of Happy Head space that I had been before that it's funny that isn't it yeah yeah I didn't expect
00:24:56
that to come about like I'm not a particularly anxious person but I mean when I think back to my last Coast to
00:25:03
Coast I thought man it would be cool to to win today and and that would give me three races that I've won which puts me
00:25:11
in the company of people like Gordon Walker Sam Clark Richard Usher Braden Curry people that I've idolized for a
00:25:16
long time and uh the race itself turned into a plan B course it was weather affected
00:25:23
one of my strengths was the kayak that got shortened um and I as I said before I was not in a great head space before
00:25:30
the race got into the race got into the run things went panning out as I'd planned the next thing I broke my ankle
00:25:37
I didn't realize it was broken at the time but I knew I'd done something
00:25:40
pretty bad to it and I kind of just um got through the rest of the day it wasn't much fun my ankle was ballooning
00:25:47
by the time I got to the end and uh emotionally I was completely empty and I thought I cannot believe this is the way
00:25:53
that my Coast to Coast career is going to finish but as I say it's funny how life works
00:26:00
so so did you um snap your ankle on goat's pass I did yeah that's a hell of
00:26:04
a run that one isn't it for anyone that's been lucky enough to do that it's
00:26:08
um yeah like as as someone that's done um most of his running on the road all
00:26:13
be at a very slow pace it's like um it always amazes me when people like you
00:26:17
and Daniel Jones and you know insert name here do well on the road and then also well on goats PK it's not even
00:26:24
really a run a lot of it it's like you're scrambling over Boulders and the
00:26:28
last N9 or so K is just along a like a dry River Bank running over Stones I'm
00:26:32
not surprised you [ __ ] your ankle yeah yeah it was probably a long time coming
00:26:36
I'm probably lucky it took as long as it did for it to happen but so how many how
00:26:39
many times derck and you've done um goats pass all up including training runs and yeah well I guess if I've done
00:26:46
the race itself 10 times I probably always wanted to get through the run at least probably four times each summer
00:26:52
leading up so I must have done it more than 50 oh my God oh my God your poor ankles
00:26:58
one the anle was like n that's it we're out yeah yeah yeah okay all right let's
00:27:03
go let's go right back let's talk about um the early years so you're from Foxton
00:27:07
the fox town of New Zealand that's us yeah yeah I love Foxton FZ Foxton Fizz
00:27:12
what else has it got Fox it's got got the windmill the windmill the windmill
00:27:16
did you know about the windmill you must know about the windmill I don't think
00:27:19
that was the when I was growing up in P that's a recent is that up near the that
00:27:23
big water tower thing yeah it's probably yeah along Main Street there no you're
00:27:26
probably right the windmill came bit later on and was the was the fast food restaurant Big Tex there when you were
00:27:32
little or no yeah Big Tex that was on the corner of my street actually actually going back to the windmill
00:27:37
people need to know this cuz it's no longer called this but the cafe adjacent
00:27:41
to the windmill for a long time was known as The Dutch oven that was its name the Dutch oven and apparently the
00:27:50
owner got sick of the jokes cuz it sounds like that was never his intention for it to be oh sounds like someone um
00:27:57
wanted to have a bus that was going to go viral yeah I don't know what it's called
00:28:03
now but it's another thing um okay yeah so so you're from um Foxton which is a
00:28:08
small town in between Levin and paliston north um your dad was a runner growing up yeah correct and and I've heard you
00:28:16
say in podcast like he you know he wasn't he wasn't good good but he was
00:28:20
still like a one and a half hour half marathon runner correct so not slouchy he wouldn't have been were there many
00:28:25
events for him to take part in or I like it's been a surge and running events but
00:28:30
yeah yeah half marathons were pretty big back then right like there was no such thing obviously as Ultra marathons like
00:28:36
there is now um and maybe because of that halves and full marathons probably I don't know if they're more popular but
00:28:43
they carried a lot more weight um if you did a marathon it was a big deal um Dad
00:28:48
focused more on the half marathons but I was so proud growing up because uh he was a runner in a small town before
00:28:53
running was as popular perhaps as as it is now and he was a teacher at the high school and at lunchtimes he would sneak
00:29:00
away and go for his run and he'd come back and he taught me actually and I remember it straight after uh lunch time
00:29:06
if he taught the next period after lunch he would always come armed with a hanky
00:29:09
to dabit his sweaty forehead so he'd finish his run jump through the shower but still sweating he'd start teaching
00:29:16
the next period and he'd always have this hanky to wipe the sweat away but why I was proud was because people just
00:29:22
thought it was amazing that your dad can run non-stop for an hour at lunchtime you know like that was that was a big
00:29:28
thing back then and yeah I I'm sure it inspired a lot of the things I went on
00:29:32
to do growing up yeah you did you did you run a bit as a kid or just the standard School cross country road run
00:29:39
yeah basically that I I did um cross country at school I I I I'm pretty sure
00:29:47
I went from dead last to to winning it within a a year or two like I used to be right at the back and um always tried
00:29:55
though I didn't come last through lack of trying but I don't remember what age
00:29:59
it was probably in my mid- teenage years I suddenly became really good at the cross country I don't know what changed
00:30:04
but so that that was probably the extent of my running I suppose I was busy playing rugby and basketball which
00:30:09
obviously have a lot of running involved so that was kind of my childhood oh yeah
00:30:13
you I heard about that so you really wanted to play rugby and your mom made you um your mom said something like if
00:30:19
you want to play rugby you need to play net wol first yeah how do you know that I I heard it somewhere on another
00:30:25
another podcast what was the thing have you asked me what the thinking that was yeah so you do like a season or two of
00:30:30
net before you allowed to play rugby why a good question I need to ask you that I
00:30:35
wonder if it was just to buy herself a whole another year of not having to worry about her son getting injured but
00:30:40
I mean as it turned out you know her her worries were Justified because I did end
00:30:45
up having a range of concussion problems and things in first 15 but yeah I don't
00:30:49
know why I had to play net ball maybe it was she hoped that it would capture me and you know what this is actually what
00:30:55
I want to play I don't want to play rugby obviously backfire cuz I came back
00:30:58
the next year and said no I still want to play rugby so was it a was it a a boys team or a mixed team or a n back
00:31:04
then no mixed rugby was mixed too right is that right so Foxton in the 1990s yeah and I remember that because quite
00:31:11
Progressive one of the uh we played a team in Levin every you know fourth Saturday or whatever it was and we just
00:31:18
feared playing this team because they there was a girl in this team that was so damn strong she just run through us
00:31:23
all so we're always so worried about playing the leevin team with the really
00:31:26
strong girl and the tire me remember it was mixed rugby was it was it weird tackling tackling girls well we with her
00:31:33
we couldn't P us out of the way um but no very normal I think and actually I
00:31:38
think I remember at Primary School um you know lunchtimes at Primary School playing rugby and the girls would play
00:31:43
too so I suppose if it's if it's a weight based thing and you know similar
00:31:47
sizes there's no sort of yeah um and then you you go to denan to study what you studied like PE and yeah yeah I um
00:31:54
so last year of high school I applied to get into phys school which back then I think they took about 200 on each year I
00:32:01
didn't actually get in um so there a big big part of my life that moved because
00:32:07
I'd never been on an airplane and the next thing I'm flying down to denen to
00:32:11
do a PE degree but I hadn't actually got into PE so I was doing like a bridging
00:32:14
year and I was having to stop playing rugby because of my concussion so there was a lot going on for me at that moment
00:32:21
but um as it turned out you know catching that flight to the needen change my life for the better but um
00:32:26
yeah I still reflect and I go man I'm so glad I was brave enough to do that because as I say there was a few
00:32:31
roadblocks in place yeah what would you have done otherwise yeah good question I
00:32:35
think even at that age I I think i' have found perhaps through um in paliston
00:32:41
North there was probably some courses and things that might have been a bit um easier for me to sort of bridge into but
00:32:48
anything to do with Sport and exercise I think was really interesting me at that
00:32:52
time and it was actually perhaps even as it is now like I'm not actually that
00:32:58
interested in high performance sport I'm really interested in population Health
00:33:03
even at that time it was man there's so much going on in the world but every
00:33:10
single type of you know every Walk of Life could benefit in some way from exercise so yeah that was how I looked
00:33:17
at it back then and now with you know we've got a much deeper understanding of
00:33:20
mental health as well as physical health I believe it more than I've ever believed it that exercis is yeah a very
00:33:27
important uh thing for us oh yeah absolutely yeah the two go hand in hand yeah the um yeah the benefits um for
00:33:34
exercise on you know on what's Happening above the neck it's it's incredible it's
00:33:39
remarkable we always sort of thought exercise probably naively was just for the body but yeah the the stuff it does
00:33:45
for the mind as well it's yeah incredible and I don't even enough if we probably quite understand you know we
00:33:51
through our own experience we probably go well yeah exercise when I'm having a
00:33:55
[ __ ] day I go for a run I always come back feeling a bit even if I haven't solved the problem at
00:34:00
I'm actually in a better place to start to understand it so anecdotally we all
00:34:05
know that it's there but I think we're still a long way behind the true sort of
00:34:09
evidence-based information that will help hope hopefully fuel those decisions that come later on for us all to sort of
00:34:16
spend more time and invest more of ourselves and exercise yeah absolutely and and you were um so your first half
00:34:23
marathon and den you ran like an hour 19 or something that's right yeah which is
00:34:27
which is bloody so you you were naturally naturally were you doing any sort of proper training at that point
00:34:33
yeah I joined the harri's club so that was 2005 my third year at University where I took a year off playing any
00:34:40
sport first year university focused on getting into PE school second year I did get into the PE school and tried I sort
00:34:47
of still hoped that rugby could be a thing for me but unfortunately that year I made it through the season but I was
00:34:52
still getting head knocks and things so the third year I knew it was that was the end of rugby door was well and truly
00:34:58
shut and I joined the university Harry's club and straight away you know um made
00:35:04
new friends learned new things started you know I think Tuesday and Thursday night was um like individual training
00:35:10
with the group and so that hour 19 half marathon certainly came off the back of a pretty robust kind of buildup yeah
00:35:16
that's a that's a mean what is that like three 3 minute 45k pace yeah yeah it
00:35:21
would be something like that yeah yeah it's no it's no joke it's like it's it's
00:35:25
a very very good time um yeah where where did that come from that sort of disciplin or drive I'm thinking if I was
00:35:32
your age like an 18 17 18 19 year old from from Foxton and I'm inan it's like
00:35:38
the whole it's like yeah it's like a lolly store but you you s of gravitated
00:35:43
towards exercise rather than you know any other the sort of um I don't know the party side of denan why is that I
00:35:49
still had a bit of bit of involvement in the party scene as well of course um but
00:35:55
no I mean I think what what I like what I love and what I always loved about training for a
00:36:04
sport and performing in a sport was um literally the more you sort of dedicate yourself to something the more those
00:36:11
rewards are available so I think I just fell in love with the idea that you can work hard at something whether it was
00:36:18
rugby earlier in my life or running in multisport as it sort of turned into and um see the reward that comes from sort
00:36:26
of the hard work m and that that 11 19 half marathon um I believe there's some story about there
00:36:32
your flatmate like snaked you or something yeah yeah no did right so I was in a flat um with a few other boys
00:36:40
who sort of thought my running habits were a bit weird um but one of them actually got quite keen on running
00:36:46
himself which I I loved that about him was that he you know instead of just sitting there poking fun at me like the
00:36:52
other boys he actually joined me for a few runs and went oh this is pretty cool so we trained for the den and half
00:36:57
marath on Ben was his name the the other Runner and Nate who was sitting on the couch every day poking fun at us for
00:37:03
going out for a run said to Ben I be I can beat you in the denan half marathon Ben's like where does this come from I'm
00:37:10
going to smoke you so poor old Ben innocently runs the half marathon to his best ability meanwhile Nate's run off
00:37:17
the start Line Round the Corner jumped in the car with one of my other flat mates driven to close to the Finish Line
00:37:23
waited until be's a couple of minutes away from finishing the half marathan squirts his head with water to make it
00:37:29
look like sweat runs across the Finish Line collapses on the ground and Ben was devastated when he crossed the line to
00:37:35
see n had beat him I don't think he found out for years after that that it was all a piss T oh the golden days
00:37:41
before like timing chips I guess yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah and cell phones to catch the guy jumping in the car and
00:37:48
you know got away with it um so where did the multispot thing come from why why didn't you just stick with running
00:37:54
like you obviously had real promise there yeah um just get bored or you want to do something else I did mount bike a
00:38:01
bit growing up um and I had a cousin who I was really close with growing up who was doing multisport and uh I just I
00:38:08
think I loved that multisport gave you more connection to Nature arguably because of that kaying thing being you
00:38:16
know water-based um mountain biking you know again reach different speeds it's a
00:38:22
whole different kind of experience to running trail running so I don't know I
00:38:26
think when I S of put running biking kaying together I thought man the world is your oyster right you can well with
00:38:32
the coast to coast being an example you can cross the country under your own steam so I think it was just uh further
00:38:38
opportunity to be in nature and experience kind of being in the outdoors and and competing against other people
00:38:44
yeah and in Den at the time they had some um like $5 series or something didn't they that's right not pay five
00:38:50
bucks to a yeah do TR long then get it like a sausage in a c oh it was brilliant and again this is things have
00:38:56
changed a bit there's a little bit more you know liability and health and safety
00:39:00
and things but back then there was a guy Neil Burrows who was a bit of an old school legend of multisport himself and
00:39:07
somehow he could uh you know through his own time I'm sure he was basically running at no he wouldn't be making any
00:39:15
money at all if anything he'd be covering the cost of the sausages and the can of fan but for $5 every second
00:39:21
Sunday through the winter months anden you'd sharpen kayak bike run on a different course usually on the
00:39:27
peninsula and and finish it with a sausage Sizzle and a can of Fizz and that was literally how I sort of learned
00:39:33
and cut my teeth in the sport amazing yeah yeah not a good not a good business model not a good business model but man
00:39:41
I yeah I do wish that there was more of those opportunities for people now yeah and and I know it's a very low entry
00:39:46
point isn't it it's cool definitely and Glen Curry's a good friend of mine he's
00:39:50
the race director with the coast to coast and and he would say the same himself he goes I you know he would say
00:39:56
he regrets that the coast to coast for a lot of people was really their only opportunity to kayak Bike Run um each
00:40:03
year because back then there were a lot of Cheaper smaller multisport events around and and for whatever reason now
00:40:10
there aren't as many yeah all right so let's get into the into the coast to
00:40:13
coast so I think everyone um has probably heard of this event but not a lot of people would know the ins and
00:40:19
outs of it so run through it from start to finish yeah okay so you've got the
00:40:23
the you can do it in two days which is the same course but you stop halfway for a night sleep get up and go again or you
00:40:29
can do it on one day which is generally sort of considered the elite side of the
00:40:32
race not necessarily but yeah obviously you not getting that halfway stop that's
00:40:37
the longest day if you one day yep and so for both races you're starting on the
00:40:42
west coast and Kumar Beach which is sort of between Greymouth and hakka you run off the beach in the dark 2 kmers up the
00:40:49
road climb on your bike ride for 55k finish in a big Paddock where your support crew are waiting with your
00:40:55
running gear that's where you run as you sort of described before it's not a
00:40:59
trail a lot of the way it's you're just basically following a river beard up
00:41:02
over the main divide of the Southern Alps which is Go pass in this instance drop down the other side again more or
00:41:08
less just following River beds and uh that's about a 30k run that's where
00:41:12
you'd normally stop on the on the two-day format and the one day you carry on little bike ride 15K to get you to
00:41:17
the start of the river pedal that's a 70 km about a 4 or five or even six hour
00:41:22
kayak down grade two sort of Rapids through the beautiful W Makar Gorge and then you finish with a 70 km um ride to
00:41:30
New Brighton Beach so you know for the for the top uh males in the one day that might be about 11 hours the top females
00:41:39
are probably more like 12 hours so it's a big day out oh my God it's massive
00:41:44
it's so much and you're not [ __ ] around either you know like you're you
00:41:48
know you're pushing it the entire way how what are you doing in terms of nutrition is it just gels do you do you
00:41:54
like tape um like bananas or something to the front of the canoe what are you yeah it's a bit of a combination really
00:41:59
uh you do have transition areas of course where your support crew can give you sort of solid foods if you want them
00:42:04
sandwiches or cream rice or I used to love boiled potatoes um but while you're actually
00:42:11
racing it's sports drink gels um maybe bananas bars Coca-Cola those sorts of
00:42:18
things so probably the sort of day out that your dentist would have a heart attack if they saw it but sometimes
00:42:24
youve sort of got to fuel the machine right yeah and and the event was um he's
00:42:28
not involved with it anymore I don't think but Robin Judkins do you do you have any Robin Judkins stories what's
00:42:34
your um not a not a huge number of sort of personal stories I loved jud's still
00:42:40
around I'm talking about him like he's no longer with us but he is um but back
00:42:45
then I loved Judy because uh the coast to coast was his success story but before that he had so many trials and
00:42:53
tribulations he tried to run events you know that'd last a year or to that'd
00:42:57
fail he probably lost all his money and he would try something else again and these were crazy ideas it was like the
00:43:03
Alpine Iron Man and queens toown where you'd get dropped by helicopter ski you'd paddle through a grade four
00:43:09
section of the River on the shot over like hectic kind of events and then summer along the way here and a few
00:43:14
mates traveled through what is now the coast to coast course and sused it out and he sort of thought well that would
00:43:21
probably make a pretty cool event in I think it was 1983 the First Coast to Coast was born so I just love that he
00:43:28
was a kiwi Pioneer out there doing it himself um not afraid to fail and somewhere along the way had the success
00:43:36
that is now the coast to coast so anyone who's ever done the coast to coast obviously has a lot to thank chudy for
00:43:41
yeah he's he's a brilliant man he's in his um 70s now and he's still energetic
00:43:45
still wears his Mambo shirts um I I Iran gos past one year as a guide for a I think it was the year after the the what
00:43:53
year was the event where the where the kayak was cancelled uh 2020 uh all cancelled completely 200 I
00:44:03
think so all changed or yeah there's been a few bad years 2022 was the most recent right because the The Story Goes
00:44:10
he was at the race briefing um and it was no longer his event so he had sold the event but he was just there as an
00:44:15
ambassador or whatever and they were talking about like um changing the route or whatever for health and safety
00:44:20
reasons and he he stormed out really stormed out he was like it's PC gone man
00:44:24
it's ridiculous um yeah I mean it's a it's it's just a a a phenomenal event
00:44:30
it's crazy that he got off the ground in the first place and crazy that it's
00:44:33
become this institution that it is now yeah yeah because it's a lot to take in
00:44:37
yeah um okay so 10 Podium finishes so how how many years did you do it before did you make the podium every time you
00:44:44
took p uh no nine out of 10 so yeah I did the first back then you had to do the two-day before you're allowed to do
00:44:50
the one day so my first race was on the two-day format which I managed to win and for the next nine I did the one day
00:44:56
and I po podiumed and eight out of those nine so is that a that's an incredible
00:45:02
outcome is it a result that you're proud of or very proud in fact more I guess
00:45:07
fundamentally proud that I managed to finish all 10 times that I started there's so many variables there's so
00:45:13
many things hiding on that course that want to end your day you know and I broke my ankle on the last one so
00:45:18
there's lot so many more opportunities to not finish than there are to finish
00:45:24
and so a bit of luck went a long way but also so just yeah I was able to kind of
00:45:29
cope with every situation and make it to the end so that's what I often say to
00:45:33
people because I think that's a really important message I I'm most proud that
00:45:37
I finished that race every time I started it yeah and and the great results how many times we on the the
00:45:42
podium before winning uh yes so that's a good question I think five times I podiumed in the two uh in the one day
00:45:52
race before I won it and it was 10 years because I took a break to sort of focus
00:45:58
on Iron Man Trion and things um but yeah so I I did my first one day coast to coast in 2009 and I won the race for the
00:46:06
first time in 2019 right wow um please don't take this the wrong way but did
00:46:13
you was there there points there where you wondered if like you you lacked something mentally or absolutely yeah
00:46:20
cuz you're right there you're yeah yeah like you're right there and um finish
00:46:24
Podium finishes like is no joke in itself but you must have I guess wondered at at times it's like why why
00:46:31
am I not making the step up yeah yeah and like probably like a lot of people I've always had that sort of impostor
00:46:38
syndrome anyway I've always stood on the start line of the co Coast thinking what
00:46:42
am I doing here like I don't deserve to be here especially as the years went on
00:46:46
and my race number got lower and lower and I'm wearing like a two or a three or
00:46:49
which is kind of your your seaing in the the event it never felt like I deserved
00:46:54
it so I did have to kind of overcome that in some way cuz you're never going to
00:46:58
win a race unless you truly believe you can so that was a big part of the challenge was that mental battle with
00:47:04
not winning it for as long as I did before I finally managed to God it must have yeah it's funny to hear that that
00:47:09
you had impost I mean I can understand you having imposter syndrome now being part of Team New Zealand you know likeon
00:47:15
syndrome being on the D Harvey Show I've had it everywhere I've gone yeah I know
00:47:19
but no no but you know what I mean like it's you're not not a sailor you're not
00:47:22
from a sailing background but to be and to be there with BL and Pete and Grant Doon whatever but I mean you earned your
00:47:27
Coast to Coast Stripes it makes no sense that you'd have impostor syndrome in
00:47:31
that environment but I don't think imposter syndrome makes sense does it no no it completely doesn't yeah I mean do
00:47:36
you get it you must get it always yeah yeah yeah always completely and it it is messed up like it makes no sense I can't
00:47:43
figure it out yeah how's how's your mental health been for the most part I
00:47:48
in the sport you do there's there's a lot of adversity involved isn't there a
00:47:51
lot of Highs but also a lot of lows yeah yeah definitely I think without sport it
00:47:56
would be a big challenge for me with sport it's just taught me so much and probably given me so many tools Without
00:48:03
Really realizing it that I I guess Sports probably armed me really well for life as well um I mean I'll I'll have a
00:48:10
big challenging transition away from being an athlete when the time comes it's probably going to come at the end
00:48:17
of this year after the America's Cup um but you know I'll I'll cross that bridge
00:48:21
when I come to it but for my whole adult life I've a big part of my identity has
00:48:26
been being an athlete so I'm in for a bit of a transition there but what I'll
00:48:30
hope to lean on through that period is as I say everything that sports taught me to this point yeah what are some of
00:48:36
the um you know the biggest adversities you've gone through I'm sure there there
00:48:39
must been a lot of times where you thought about packing it in oh yeah yeah I think um yeah the if I reflect like a
00:48:48
big challenge for me was came through forced removal of rugby from my life even though I look back and I like with
00:48:55
hindsight I go what I was myself I was never going to be an all black or anything but it doesn't matter at that
00:49:00
time rugby was just so important to me so making a decision on my own terms luckily because it was definitely the
00:49:08
right decision that concussions were not good for me I you know that was a really
00:49:13
hard decision to make but you know that that paved the way into M sport but um I
00:49:20
I think one of the biggest challenges for me was always going to be transitioning away from the coast to
00:49:27
coast and certainly on that last race that you know that that was just everything I didn't want to happen
00:49:33
happened that day you know like not winning the race ending up injured realizing it was probably my last race
00:49:40
um that would have been a real [ __ ] kind of into things but again saved somewhat
00:49:46
by the opportunity that's come through Emirates te New Zealand so I feel like I
00:49:49
keep falling and landing on a mattress or something you know yeah did they not hear about that last
00:49:55
race this guy's broke down actually one one setback that came was um after the shoulder tapping hey do
00:50:03
you want to trial for Emirates Team New Zealand well hell yeah of course I do um
00:50:08
I did uh it's called the Motu challenge a multisport event in the Bay of Plenty
00:50:11
and and no one knew it at the time but for me that was my last ever multisport race and so that happened in October so
00:50:18
I had two months to train specifically for the trial for Team New Zealand my coach Gordon Walker knew that I knew
00:50:25
that my family knew that not many others did about and that was a short period 8
00:50:30
weeks is not long to go from an ultra endurance athlete to producing as much power on a bike for 5 seconds to 20
00:50:36
minutes as you can unfortunately to make it even more testing I fell off my mountain bike on my own about a month
00:50:43
into that two-month build and knock myself unconscious which straight away was bad given my history with
00:50:50
concussion and from that the doctor basically said you need to stop training effective immediately and it was so bad
00:50:59
the headaches were so bad and even light and cell phones and things gave me such
00:51:04
painful headaches I basically lay in bed with the curtains closed with my eyes closed for a couple of days and so that
00:51:09
was all happening about a month before the team New Zealand trial so at that moment there was no way I was getting
00:51:14
get into Team New Zealand and on top of that I knew I'd been I was finished with
00:51:19
multisport so that was a real moment for me where it was like man this is the end
00:51:24
of life as I now you know I've always KN it what comes of this meanwhile you know
00:51:29
headaches and it was all horrible but luckily for me a few days later I was able to sort of spit sit on a indoor
00:51:37
bike with my eyes closed no music no sort of visual stimulation and just turn the legs over and just gently from there
00:51:43
build my way back to getting to the trials and more or less one piece terrifying yeah yeah
00:51:51
terrifying um yeah I heard another story about an event you did um where was it you got hypothermia yeah Iron Man Canada
00:51:59
2015 yeah so you maxed out the credit cards to get there yeah yeah and I had an 8-month-old son Flynn was born at
00:52:05
that stage so I was still I guess living on a whim a little bit the way I always
00:52:11
had but the big difference now was I actually had a a kid that you know a dependent and my wife was a full-time
00:52:19
mom like raising our child so I was actually my job was to provide and and I'd gone to Iron Man Canada basically
00:52:27
under this illusion I suppose but at the time just knowing in my heart of hearts
00:52:32
that I was going to do well enough in the race to get the sort of prize money that would at least help us Break
00:52:37
Even uh and got to it was in Whistler it was 30 degrees every day it was there bushfires ironically the big talk was we
00:52:46
need rain like it's there bush fires it's so hot it's a drought everything's
00:52:50
so dry well the rain came and it came on race day and I think it was about 8° and
00:52:55
the heavens opened and I was out on the bike so I hadn't dressed for that uh I
00:52:59
knew it was going to happen somewhere on the race but I only brought a certain amount of clothing across from New
00:53:04
Zealand so I could only wear what I had with me got cold got a bit Delirious ended up in the medical tent ended up in
00:53:10
tears um you know I'm under the survival blanket shivering as I'm sort of
00:53:15
starting to gain coherence again and all I could think about was I've completely
00:53:19
[ __ ] up here my my family have no money now because of me and I've dragged them across the
00:53:24
world to this race that I'm sitting in a middle having not finished so that was pretty tough [ __ ]
00:53:32
how's your wife with this stuff she quite understanding and yeah yeah thankfully I mean it's been um yeah it's
00:53:40
been a the sort of uh life I suppose if sometimes I sort of it it sounds a bit stupid but I say to her like if our life
00:53:50
was a book like would we want to read it like is it going to be a page Turner or
00:53:54
not you know and that's sort of how we've tried to look at up and and when
00:53:57
you're talking about getting hypothermia at Iron Man Canada and having no money
00:54:02
and having to find a way out of that I'd be turning the pages to find what happens next oh yeah yeah M we're just
00:54:07
scratching the surface I mean there's um yeah there's stage runs that you've done
00:54:11
on the desert there's um oh wasn't there like an Iron Man in China where you shat
00:54:15
yourself no yeah no definitely shoted plenty in China it just comes with the with the territory over
00:54:22
there yeah yeah yeah I it's a yeah it's a hell of a page it's been it's been epic I I yeah I just
00:54:29
wonder if you if if you're nervous about the second half of your life being born
00:54:34
you've done so so much yeah yeah but I mean if we rewind and like I said I finished high school in Foxton and my
00:54:41
first ever time on an airplane was to fly to University so I'm I'm not even
00:54:46
quite I'm 17 at that stage nearly 18 first experience sitting on an airplane
00:54:51
so you know I've caught up since then obviously but uh I remember sitting down
00:54:56
with my first ever coach A lady called Val Burke and moniker and uh doing a bit of goal setting this was 2009 and goal
00:55:03
setting as I said to you has never been really a focus for me but she asked one simple question and she said listen I'm
00:55:09
I'm happy to coach you for multisport and things but I I just want to know what do you want to get out of this and
00:55:15
I just I had to think for a moment and I said I just want to see the world I just
00:55:19
want to travel and I want to see the world and if sport can help me do that that's that's all I can ever ask from
00:55:23
the sport so I've certainly achieved that you know Brazil China Abu Dhabi Sweden you name it like I've been to
00:55:30
lots of cool places even now you know we get to go to Barcelona um and with multisport and adventure racing it's not
00:55:37
you're not going to London and going to the pubs you're going to the absolute
00:55:40
Outback in China or Brazil racing through the jungle and coming across Villages that don't have electricity and
00:55:46
haven't seen a white person before so to me it's given me these experiences that
00:55:51
I could have only ever dreamed of when I was growing up yeah you what do you think you will
00:55:56
do next will it be like coaching will you still have your finger in the p and be involved and yeah I mean I don't know
00:56:03
to be quite honest my wife my longsuffering wife Amy she's supported me through what's been
00:56:10
a very uh challenging kind of career choice um oh yeah it's not for the faint
00:56:16
is it no no and she's been dragged Along on that and thankfully um you know Flynn
00:56:24
and Matilda are 9 and seven they they develop more and more Independence Amy's
00:56:28
gone into real estate in Monica she's about 3 years deep she's very good at it
00:56:33
she loves it she works hard at it and it's probably about time I support her
00:56:37
on that and I've wanted to for the last three years but I've obviously still
00:56:40
been so fixated on my own persuits from the outside looking in people often compliment us I can't believe you guys
00:56:47
are awesome the way you do all these things it's [ __ ] hard and I'm away
00:56:51
from home a lot um I wouldn't change a thing I'm I'm living a life I could only
00:56:56
have ever dreamed of Amy supports me I support her but it's hasn't been easy
00:57:01
and so coming back to your question what's next I really want to just throw way more of myself and Amy in her career
00:57:08
and what she's driven by oh mate I I love that I've had um Alex pler on the
00:57:14
the podcast basketballer and um he said the same sort of thing he you know his um wife supported him through the tail
00:57:20
end of his basketball career and then um he was diagnosed with bow cancer and she
00:57:24
was his Rock through that and he like now it's um her time to shine yeah cool
00:57:29
yeah that's cool it's really neat um yeah you've done all right for a kid
00:57:34
from Foxton eh do you ever you ever sort of paused to reflect about where you've
00:57:39
come from and what you've done I I try to I should do it more often but um yeah
00:57:45
I think like I've gone back to Foxton couple of times spoken at the high school and things and the the message
00:57:52
I've sort of tried to drive there and and especially to like any sort of small
00:57:58
town around the country is you don't have to be from the big city to to achieve the things you want to achieve
00:58:04
and that's what I hope uh my journey sort of shows to the friends and family
00:58:10
I still have back in Foxton is you you can do anything coming from Foxton and a lot of people have you know there's a
00:58:16
lot of uh friends and family from Foxton that have gone on to do lots of awesome
00:58:21
stuff themselves so it's really cool yeah I feel like um I don't know this is
00:58:25
proba from when I was growing up but I feel like when you're from like a small
00:58:28
town or the regions you do sort of put limits on yourself of what you think you're capable of maybe that's changed a
00:58:34
bit with the growth of the internet and stuff like that I'm really not sure yeah
00:58:37
I think that's probably still a factor right and um yeah I'd like to think
00:58:42
things are changing as you say we're more connected than we've ever been and
00:58:45
that sort of thing but yeah yeah oh um oh godzone let's talk about God Zone a
00:58:50
bit as well so you what is the god Zone event most people won't even know what
00:58:54
this is It's like a 5 day race no can be yeah can be uh God's owners what we call
00:59:00
Expedition adventure racing so adventure racing being a team format of multisport
00:59:05
right kaying sometimes drafting mountain biking running whatever the team side of
00:59:10
that generally is four-person teams usually the ruling says You must have at least one of each gender most of
00:59:16
the competitive teams are three male one female I mean there's been good examples
00:59:21
of more gender Balan teams but anyway stage racing is a bit like say the toy of France you'll Race for a day you'll
00:59:27
stop go to a hotel eat sleep get up the next day race again that's stage racing
00:59:31
so God's Own is Expedition racing and that is one start line One Finish Line
00:59:36
get between them as quickly as you can stop and sleep if and when needed you know eat along the way all that sort of
00:59:43
thing so um the winning team for the god Zone will usually take between sort of four and six days the course is
00:59:50
generally open for at least of 8 to 10 days for some of the slower teams so uh New Zealand based event there's
00:59:58
Adventure races Expedition Adventure races all around the world um but God's
01:00:03
Own is the New Zealand branch of that and uh yeah I've done it a couple of times the more recent time I think was
01:00:10
2021 where I did it with Simone Meer um former guest of the show Theo woodsworth
01:00:16
and a guy I don't know if you've heard of Richie mcco yeah yeah wasn't he a
01:00:20
ringing like a a CO ring I was the ringing oh you were the ringing yeah um not a bad
01:00:26
yeah yeah was it Richie's team it was Richie's team yeah right by the way um
01:00:31
Simone myone that hasn't her that she's like the the female you really oh she's
01:00:35
kind of like the queen of the coast to coast yeah she's much more impressive of
01:00:37
the coast to coast than me she's a Savage she's won five times more than
01:00:41
double me uh but good friend of mine for a long time both W both used to work at
01:00:46
the swimming pool there when we were dreaming of bigger and better things but um yeah
01:00:50
Richie Richie and Simone and Theo had a team with um Rob uh former players manager Rob nickel does the Coast to
01:00:59
Coast with them mostly yeah that's right and uh it was when the O lockdown happened which I'm sure orlanders still
01:01:05
remember um and he I think was nursing a bit of a knee injury but regardless the
01:01:10
lockdown was the final um nail on the coffin for him so I think it happened about four days before the god Zone was
01:01:16
due to kickoff and roro got asked to race at 4 days notice and um long story short said yes flew up
01:01:24
there and and got stuck in with those guys we finished second but um I mean for me it was just the most amazing week
01:01:31
of racing with a couple of friends I'd raced with Simone and Theo before but
01:01:36
obviously we all know Richie and to be privy to Richie's uh psyche for a week
01:01:41
of hardship was pretty special yeah yeah what did you what did you learn from that any sort of takeaways or lessons or
01:01:49
memorable conversations you had yeah I had lots of conversations um in those races you sleep de priv a lot so I would
01:01:57
often um ask questions if I was fighting off what we call the Sleep monster which
01:02:01
is basically an um irresistable urge to fall asleep even if you're walking or
01:02:06
biking so um there were times sort of 3:00 a.m. walking through the bush where I'd just Hound Richie with questions and
01:02:12
he would answer them and together would just keep each other awake kind of thing
01:02:15
but I still very vividly remember a lot of that conversation um but I mean ultimately what I learned from from
01:02:22
Richie was what you know what makes the antic and just how mentally tough he is like he was racing that event with three
01:02:32
I guess quote unquote you know Elite multisport athletes oh completely I don't think it's offensive to say he's
01:02:39
the weak link on the team yeah perhaps physically I mean he carried an extra 20 kilos of muscle for a start yeah and
01:02:45
didn't have the same training history in the sport that we had but more than made
01:02:49
up for that with his mental toughness really yeah it was Unreal but one thing he would say quite often in the tough
01:02:55
times and I I remember one moment we were carrying mountain bikes through Blackberry in the middle of the night I
01:03:02
mean think of something worse than that you know it's hard enough it's a
01:03:06
mountain bike stage you can't even ride your damn bike you know so I'm cursing
01:03:09
everything I see in here at the time cuz this sucks and he would just sort of quietly go well someone out there is
01:03:15
having a worse day than us and then just carry on and then it would just leave me
01:03:19
reflecting and I'd go [ __ ] I'm not you know I'm not in Africa starving to death
01:03:25
I'm not in a War stricken country like he's dead right like this doesn't suck
01:03:29
there's way worse hardships in the world right now so pick your lip up and carry
01:03:33
on attitude that is a good way of looking at it eh there's that same comparisons the theft of Joy but yeah if
01:03:40
you compare down you don't actually have to look too far yeah wow that's cool did
01:03:45
it feel like you're being almost told off yeah pretty much yeah sorry richy yeah yeah I I heard um you do another
01:03:53
podcast somewhere where um he not I was going to say he played a game with you guys but not a game I
01:04:00
guess but just a thing probably the talking thing that you're mentioning where um he wanted everyone to come up
01:04:06
with their three funeral words yeah that's right yeah what was that exactly well he he yeah again it was probably a
01:04:14
tactical moment in the race where we're all quite tired and needed a bit of stimulation but he did he said um if you
01:04:22
were at your own funeral what are the three kind of key words you'd want to be
01:04:27
remembered by you know I I can't actually remember what my answer was um but I remember one of his words was
01:04:34
Integrity I remember that much I can't remember the other two but I remember
01:04:38
him using the word integrity and I thought that was a pretty cool word and in the short time in the week that I
01:04:43
know him I thought well it's funny you say that because that would be one of
01:04:46
the words I would use for Richie how good you what would yours be America's Cup
01:04:53
winner don't count your chickens before they hit yeah yeah I'm not sure yeah I think
01:05:00
um I'm pretty sure this is what um yeah when I had Simone on the podcast she she
01:05:04
described she said he was clumsy yeah yeah she said he was clumsy but I'm thinking [ __ ] if I've been like you know
01:05:11
walking and running and cycling over the place for 4 days I'd probably be clumsy
01:05:14
as well yeah well if any if you want anyone to I think he crashed at quite a high speed at one stage on the bike
01:05:21
might have been going 40 car an hour or something and you never want to see your
01:05:24
teammate crash but I do remember thinking if any of us are going to crash at 40K an hour let it be Richie cuz he's
01:05:31
going to bounce up and carry on which is exactly what he did um but yeah Simone's
01:05:36
got a funny way with words and um yeah I think there was a period of time there where Richie was probably just
01:05:41
completely fatigued and slep deprived where he took a few spills and all that did was upset Simone cuz we got to carry
01:05:47
on come on stop being so clumsy poor Richie she's she's a s j she's unbelievable hey that's really cool cool
01:05:55
mate it's been so good to um spend time with you today yeah it's it's really
01:06:00
cool so um so we're recording this yeah on your 39th birthday um so you're going
01:06:05
out for dinner tonight with your uncle and auntie and then um back to work tomorrow anac day yeah we'll be sailing
01:06:11
tomorrow yep so uh The Show Must Go On I'm sure um people that want to attend
01:06:16
the dawn ceremony will have the opportunity to do that and then uh the rest of the day yeah will'll be focused
01:06:21
on keeping sailing keeping learning and hopefully keeping moving towards the America's Cup goal unreal who knows what
01:06:28
your 40s are going to bring I mean in mid-30s you could never have imagined you'd be part of Team New Zealand one of
01:06:33
our big you know I suppose Flagship Marquee teams who knows what the 40s are going to bring but I'm sure it's going
01:06:39
to be epic yeah thanks Dom yeah yeah we'll wait and see I guess oh and and last one what do you you've got a
01:06:45
fantastic sleeve um on your left arm oh yeah um are you moldy at all or no no no
01:06:50
no grew up in Foxton so I sort of feel p as the token white boy what what does that mean what's the design yeah so it's
01:06:58
a koui which is when a paky gets a I guess a tle put on their body so um yeah the the top half I suppose um is all
01:07:07
about my family so um Amy and the kids my parents my siblings that sort of thing and then the lower lower half's
01:07:14
fairly new actually but it's in Albatross at too which is the northern Royal albatross in denen and um in a
01:07:21
storm and I just I love Albatross they uh I mean they the multi sporters of the bird world right they can fly they can
01:07:28
swim they can run along land they can you SE them in a kayak exactly but they're also endurance athletes the
01:07:34
torto will leave um its nest and its opportunity to learn to fly is basically jumping off a cliff and flying around
01:07:41
the world for the next four to six years before it makes its way back so um there's that sort of endurance side to
01:07:46
them that I've always love navigating their way around the world through storms you know there's a lot of I guess
01:07:52
symbolism that comes with that um fragility there obviously um suffering a lot with things like
01:07:57
climate change and plastic waste and those sorts of things so that's I love that thanks for sharing that I love the
01:08:03
significance of it are you are you done with tattoos or I guess you're never
01:08:07
done with tattoos e but um content at the moment you just may maybe keep adding to them as the um as the DG Allen
01:08:14
story progresses perhaps yeah you never knowa I love it hey mate it's great to I
01:08:18
feel like I know you already but it's great to me and um yeah I appreciate the
01:08:21
opportunity to pick your brains today yeah thanks Dom long time listener First Time guest great priv not the last not
01:08:29
the last we'll have you back oh thanks mate I appreciate it [Music]