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Stefan Ozich, welcome to my podcast again. Yes, second time guest. Take two. Take two. So, first time you came on the
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podcast would have been um September 2024 when you were just about to begin this journey of running the Tiara Trail
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twice. Yeah, far out when you put it that way. Yeah. September. I was just ramping up.
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Probably two weeks out, wasn't it? Yeah. So, shivers. A lot's happened since
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then. But yeah, that's correct. Four and a half months ago almost. So, it was one
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of those it was one of those podcasts like from from my perspective, it's like
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Sorry guys. Sorry to interrupt you. Stephen, could you pull your microphone in a little closer? Yes. Okay.
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Got it. Could you go from the top again? Well, can't we just pick it up from um
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40 seconds in? I mean, it probably be eas Okay. Okay. Okay. Stefan Ozich, welcome to Welcome back to
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my podcast. Yeah, it's good to be back. So, this is your second appearance on
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the podcast. First time was um September last year, just when you were about to embark on this journey of running um the
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length of New Zealand twice on the Tiaraa trail, 6,000 km um which you ended up doing in 114 days, which works
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out to be an average of 52 km per day. Yeah, that's the one. Wasn't the plan
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was 100 days averaging about 60ks a day, but due to the terrain and unforeseen circumstances, which I'm sure we'll get
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into, that kind of dwindled that down and extended it out. But on the in the scheme of things, I'm happy that it
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wasn't much more than that. Uh considering it was meant to be 100 extra 14 days from a percentage, it's not much
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different. So, in the end, I was pretty happy with that. M yeah. Where did it go
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so horribly wrong? Where to start? No, no, no, I'm kidding. Like it's um like
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just doing it at all is amazing. Um I know it wasn't the uh the the time you
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were hoping for in terms of days, but in some ways that makes it even more remarkable. You're out there for that
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much longer. Like four months of your life all up. Yeah. I was I was talking about this with a couple friends and it
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got to the point where like yeah, I'm in here. I'm doing this thing. I'm focused
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on this one thing. But once it passed throughout 100 days, 105 days, I was like, "Shit, this is getting this is
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getting intense." And once it passed 110 days, for me, that was that was kind of
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my invisible like, yeah, this that will be the maximum I go. But knowing that I only had four to six days left to go. I
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was like, I can ride this out. But it definitely got in the point where I'm like, this is this is getting long. Like
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this is this isn't just like a a two-month journey. This is like a third of a year. And I was thinking about I
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was trying to think very consciously of my crew too. You know, they committed so
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much of their life to this thing. It's kind of like I've got to, you know, it's
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out of my control, right? Only I could only do so much in a day that would lead to so much less time. So, but hey, we
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got it done. Yeah. And for me, this is the exciting thing about having you back because when I had you in here the first
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time, it was this um this this big hairy audacious goal um that you were planning
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on doing. Um, and I thought you had that look in your eye that you were going to
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do it, but you just don't know. Like there's so many variables that can come
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into these things. Yeah, absolutely. Cuz I can only say, you can only say you're
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going to do something so much, right? You would actually do the thing. And that was my case. I was coming in blind.
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As blind as I could have been. I was prepared as as prepared as I could be, but there's only so much you can, you
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know, get get in line. And it's it's the doing it part. Like I had all the
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logistics in order, but it's the actual physical act of doing it. So yeah, it's
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it's a weird place to be when I look back. In in terms of um the preparation
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angle, uh yeah, what would you have done differently? I would have started later
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later in the year just due to the adverse weather. Uh that probably would have been the
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biggest thing honestly not much else. Uh so physically you you'd done enough?
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Yeah, physically I don't think I could have done anything more honestly like
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cuz cuz the thing is what I learned very quick is you're going to get injured.
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It's inevitable you're going to get injured. It's just a matter of how soon
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and how effectively and how efficiently you can, you know, recover from that. But it would have been probably the
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start date I would have I would have pushed it further further in the air because just the weather I encountered
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which I had no idea I was going to encounter was just extreme. It was very very caught me off guard. Yeah. Oh, I I
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can't wait to get into that and talk about that. Um, yeah. First of all, before we go any further, we'll talk
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about your your why. Your brother Jerome in particular, like in the um the first
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time you came on the podcast, this made up a big part of it. Yeah. Your why. But
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um for anyone that maybe didn't hear the first one, but is listening to this now.
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Yeah. What's the why? Yeah. Great. Uh so ultimately two years now, coming up to
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two years now, my brother um he took his life and a year prior to that, I lost uh
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one of my closest friends to the same same circumstances. Um, and I got to catch a firsthand glimpse as to how uh
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underresourced and underfunded uh the mental health sector is in New Zealand from a men's perspective catering to
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helping men in particular. And it prompted me to be like, no, I've got to raise money, raise awareness, whatever
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it looked like. And then fortunately in that period with my brother when he was suffering, I met the founder of this
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foundation called the Last Chance Project. Um, and it was from that journey after Derome passed. uh that I
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created this connection realized like now this is the foundation that I'm going to raise money for. So that was
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ultimately the why. Yeah. And uh you did raise money uh I checked the give a little page last night 231,000. Yeah.
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Yes. It's like quarter of a million. And your your your your goal or your dream
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or your wish was to raise a million. Yeah. Correct. Um [ __ ] quarter of a million. I mean that ain't bad. I
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remember when we had this we we chatted about this um at the beginning. And I think at the time I had 50,000 maybe.
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And then you made such a good point which really kind of took a bit of weight off my shoulders and you asked a
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good question in the leadup and prior to that too was um uh you know it's still a
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[ __ ] ton of money and it's still more than nothing. You know that's still a
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lot of money to work with and knowing that it's now quarter of a mill. It's
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yeah it gives a bit of peace but it also um tells me that that's still a significant amount of money that can
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make some change. Uh however, there's still that goal, right? It's still
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there. Um but I'm at peace with it. And I remember you asked that question and
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it and it told me like, you know, if you don't reach the target, which we in a
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way haven't, it's still knowing that that money, that chunk of cash is going
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to bring some change and bring some value to men. And that for me is yeah, gives a lot of peace and it tells me
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that okay, the mission is somewhat complete. I'm at peace with that. Setting a goal is one thing, but
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actually getting somewhat close to it or even a quarter of the way to it, hey, it's better off than zero. So yeah.
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Yeah. $231, especially in the uh the climate we're in at the moment, you know, cost of living crisis, inflation
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crisis, everyone's struggling. I think it's a it's it's a ton of money,
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especially for a guy that doesn't have like a you know, with all due respect,
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like a like a huge profile. Um you've you've done this like just just with
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your own sort of um I don't know, tenacity and drive and spirit. I think that's really powerful. Yeah. Yeah.
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Interesting putting it that way. Uh that was a a factor too. It's like who am I?
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You know, who's this guy? And it definitely helped coming on your podcast by all means. Uh but yeah, I mean again,
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we said this, hey, when there's a why and it's strong enough, it's that that's
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that that leads primarily and I noticed this at the end. I got way more traction, way more attention near the
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end, which is what I knew would happen. Um and then people eventually do start to recognize. So yeah, it's interesting.
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Oh. Um yeah, the week that we're recording this, it's just been announced
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that um what's his name? Is it Russ Cook? You know, the world's hardest hardest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um seems like
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a promotion. I don't think it's a charity thing. I think it's a promotional sort of thing. Sponsored by
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100% pure New Zealand. Um yes. So Russ Cook, hard skiser, massive social media following. Uh he's coming to New Zealand
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to run the Tiara Trail. Uh once, not twice. Um I'm I'm probably projecting here. This
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police says more about my ego than anything else. But yeah, does it [ __ ] you off that he's had so much media
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attention about it? Nah, it does. Like like obviously there's a smidgen of like
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[ __ ] But nah cuz end of the day what that guy did running the length of Africa, which is for those listening who
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who didn't know that's why he got the clout he does and has got the awareness
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and that's just that's just so extreme. Like obviously there's that part of my
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ego but it's like damn. But it's like hey he he's he's deserved that. He's
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fully deserved that. And you who knows for my next thing hopefully it will bring more attention. So uh yeah I
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respect that. But the thing is I made I wrote a message on his page. I'm like
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hey bro if you got any tips if you want any tips ran it twice only person ever to do so. And it's got like 300 likes on
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his on his on his thread. So that pops it up the comment higher. So hopefully he sees that and be like oh yeah I might
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ask a few questions. So who knows but hey what he's done and what he's achieved is just it's mindboggling. So
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power to him really. Yeah. Yeah, whatever the whatever the deal is, presumably the um the the pay for 100%
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New Zealanders um you know the the tourism benefits from um attaching themselves to his social media. Um but
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there's there's there's a few guys out there doing incredible stuff like Ned
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Brockman in Australia as well. He's another one that's done some amazing
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runs. Maybe next time you do it, you know, you'll Yeah, you'll get the sort
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of Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah. The clout or the flat you deserve cuz the thing that this was my first thing and
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it was quite an extreme thing. Um maybe Yeah. That's like maybe the next thing.
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Uh yeah, who knows? It's going to be interesting because obviously for me this is just the start, right? I've I've
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I've well and truly got the bug uh for big big events and knowing now that physically I can get through quite a
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lot. It's like okay cool. Let the body settle, refresh, digest, assimilate all
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the learnings and then yeah, next thing will come. Yeah. Where you at now? you at the now the point now where you just
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sort of blue sky thinking just um yeah coming up with possibilities of what you want to do next or yeah in a way well
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cuz I had a lot of thinking time to do on this mission I was already kind of like crazy to think even thinking about
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it now was during the event I was already thinking about what I was going to be doing after this event and I
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already had ideas so yeah even during and now after for sure main focus now has just been recovery so that's kind of
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all my focuses now yeah yeah how how did the recovery look like sort of unexpected side effects and things like
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that. Yeah, definitely what we spoke about before off camera. Right. It was the blues. I definitely felt like what
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would you say postevent depression? Uh I was pretty low. Uh I was very surprised
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how low I got. Just a bit overwhelmed, anxious, jittery. Uh all the noise, all the focus on you know me and this
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mission. You know the ego likes that. You know my mind was loving that in a way. And then all of a sudden it's just
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turned off. Uh that in itself is its own thing. but focusing so solely on this one thing for such a long time and to
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have that cease. Uh yeah, it was it was a bit of a it was a ton of bricks, so to
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say, but I've dealt with it, I think, in a real healthy way with, you know, my
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family and with, you know, we spoke about my faith. That's been helpful. And
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just through my own processing and trying to just be gentle with myself, but still at the same time be that have
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that same discipline and ferocious focus, but in a recovery sense and in a sense of like rest in the sense of
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keeping it cool. That's been kind of my attention uh switching to kind of that
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area. That seems mainly mental. What about physical? Yeah. Yeah, true. That very
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mental cuz I think the mental thing the mental thing has been the hardest thing.
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That's the the physical uh kind of came naturally cuz I know what to expect. So
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sauna big time. Uh, I had an ice bath actually and my usually when I go on an ice bath,
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right, you have the pain and and it kind of it dwindles and you kind of just deal
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with it. When I went on an ice bath last week, my feet felt like there was a blowtorrch being centered on it and it
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wouldn't go. Usually after about 5 10 seconds it goes. It just stayed there.
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So that told me the nerve ending. So I actually asked this friend of mine. He said, "Yeah, the capillaries and the
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nerve endings are just shot." So you imposing that um cold which causes I think it's vasual contraction um that's
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going to conflict and cause so much pain to those nerve endings. So don't do that
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yet. Focus on the body. Don't focus on the feet. So that's kind of been the
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focus. Just focusing on the rest of the body. Massaging the feet just not ice buffing it. And eating and sleeping.
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That's really been it. Eating good food, sleeping 8 to 10 hours a night. So that's the physical component. But as I
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was saying about the mental, that's been the most uh that's taken the most time and it's
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been probably the hardest. It's been the most unexpected too with what I've had
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to deal with as I was just saying. So yeah, it's a marriage as it is with the
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event I did. It's physical and mental. So, same thing with recovery. And it's
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been real good, too, cuz I've been keeping like doing journal entries and just just processing what I'm going
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through as I'm recovering. And that's been quite informal for me and um educational because I've also got my
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coaching business and I've got clients now. I've got this sort of uh repertoire
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of experience and knowledge now that I can pass on to people that may do similar things and I can be like, "Hey,
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this is likely what you expect. Don't fre out. expect it, but don't be fredded
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out. Be patient, and you know, you'll you'll get through it. You'll get
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through it. Oh, yeah. You're a wealth of knowledge now for anyone that wants to
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do one of these extreme sort of challenges. Yeah. Um I I heard No, maybe I read it in an article. Whatever. Um I
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The quote was, "You feel grateful rather than proud." Can you explain what you
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mean by that? Good question. Yeah. Yeah. Proud. I don't know. It's an interesting
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word. Grateful. Um, grateful that my body was able to get through it. Grateful that I had the
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crew, grateful that I had the the body that could tolerate the onsort of injury, grateful that I had um the
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circumstances, grateful I had the support, uh, grateful I could be an opportunity. It is just a multitude of
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um those factors that told me, yeah, I'm I'm able to do this thing. And pride for
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me, which I think what ultimately what being proud means is that you're sort of
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um involving your own self-will as the means and the mechanisms to getting the thing done. Like it's only you, it's
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only through your control. So that's why I didn't really like to use that
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language. I like to use the language of gratitude because it was all the things around me and all the people I had
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around me and all the circumstances that were in my favor that allowed me to do it. So that's really the reasoning.
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Yeah. I try to not allow it to get because again the ego can be very penicious. My one as well as all of ours
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can be. Um but I just it was a means of checking myself you know obviously I did
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the thing. I'm not taking away from that but I realized very clearly that yeah
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I'm just so grateful. Like even just my parents alone like the support they had.
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They'll text me every day. Such a huge boost for me to know that I've got these
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parents that support me that are in my life. And then I have my friends they would like message me most days. So all
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those things as to was to why I was more grateful than I was proud of what I'd
00:15:38
done. Yeah, that's cool. Thanks for that answer. Yeah. Um okay, how many pairs of
00:15:43
shoes? Yeah, it's honestly Vivo Barefoot. Shout outs. They were my main sponsor. They are a wowwearing, sturdy
00:15:51
shoe for something that's only 8 m of tread. What is it? Vivo Vivo Barefoot.
00:15:55
That the shoe I the shoe I wore for the whole thing. um eight mills of tread and
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that would last month, you know, essentially it was three months, four months. So that they would, you know, I
00:16:07
would have a pair that I would I could have kept going. So really, I went through two pairs that like completely
00:16:12
ripped, but the actual soles of the other six pairs that I threw out, I could have probably get got another, you
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know, 50ks, 100ks out of all of them. But the soul started to give too much that they would have created like a too
00:16:26
much of a compensation that could have caused the injury. That's kind of why I
00:16:29
threw them out. So really only eight pairs I went through which in the scheme of things was pretty, you know. Yeah.
00:16:36
Amazing. Yeah. It's trail trail running as well. It's rough terrain. So um I
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don't know what these shoes are. Is it like the Viram Five Fingers? Similar principle except you haven't got
00:16:45
individual toe. Okay. Yeah. So it's just a barefoot style shoe with wide toe box
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minimalist style. Yeah. There's no stack height between the foroot midfoot and
00:16:53
the um sole. So just neutral. And and um did you have um AirPods or anything or did you raw dog it? Raw dog most of it.
00:17:01
Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Just you and your own thoughts? Pretty much. Why? What was the What was the mentality
00:17:05
behind it? It's a weird It's a weird thing, Dom. I've tried to figure this
00:17:09
out. For some reason, there's this thing in my mind. It feels like a pain listening to music. I can't explain it.
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I really can't explain it. like I put them in and all of a sudden I get bored,
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which is counterintuitive cuz you get bored of doing the thing like where you're not listening to music. Uh but
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there was moments where I was like, "Yeah, it was generally music." Um it
00:17:31
was generally podcast or audio books that I was listening to. I didn't really
00:17:35
listen to music when I was listening to something. Uh yeah, I'm trying. I don't
00:17:40
know. It's a weird thing, man. And then it was until like four years ago, 5 years ago, David Gogggins came out
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saying like, "Nah, listening to shit's cheating." And then I was kind of like,
00:17:48
and I was kind of like, "Oh yeah, that kind of makes sense to my logic then. It
00:17:52
kind of is cheating." But really, before he said that, I'm not trying to like say
00:17:56
like, "Yeah, go." Before that, I'd already I was never really a listener of
00:17:59
music. So, yeah, it's it's a weird thing. I had a weird thing with that. I
00:18:03
don't know. But I don't get me wrong, man. Like I do listen to music or listen
00:18:07
to a podcast or audio book, but yeah, it was just I don't know cuz it was so you
00:18:12
you you required so much focus as well. You required so much attention on the steps, especially in the NALI trains in
00:18:19
the South Island. You kind of couldn't like listening to something would might
00:18:23
be distracting and all it would take is a misstep and then you're you're done.
00:18:26
You know, you could you could have rolled an ankle, snapped the leg. Uh so that was also part of it as I was
00:18:32
already I had to be so engaged to what I was doing. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think
00:18:36
um I don't think we can stress that enough. Like running 6,000ks over 4 months is um is is is insane in in
00:18:44
itself, but to do it over um the trails and also with the vert that thisa trail has. Um it's just like an added
00:18:51
dimension. Yeah. Big time. Crazy. So, so you Yeah. Most of the time you're alone
00:18:56
in your own thoughts and obviously on those um technical bits um you know mindfulness is key. You have to be so in
00:19:03
the moment. But what about um yeah what about times like you know when it's just flat and
00:19:08
boring like where did your mind go to in those places? How how did you stay positive? Yeah. Oh
00:19:15
man. Well, when well I'll ask the first question like the flat sections they I
00:19:21
must admit it was probably the real flat sections where I did listen to um a podcast or read an audio book. Um but if
00:19:29
I didn't have that I guess I'll just be kind of it was kind of like an active
00:19:33
meditation. My mind was just focused on like well I'm doing this thing and then
00:19:37
I'll just kind of focus in and just I can't explain it man. It just it just
00:19:42
goes. The time just goes and I'm just absorbed in this thing. But I would say
00:19:45
the best uh explanation would be kind of like an active meditation. Um but yeah,
00:19:50
to keep positive, yeah, that was one that was one that I had to deal with most days. Like every single morning I
00:19:56
woke up, I didn't want to go for the run. Like I never had a I never had a day. Maybe maybe two or three times I
00:20:01
can vividly remember, but most of the time I'd wake up and be like, "Yeah,
00:20:06
[ __ ] this." You know, what am I doing out here? Especially near the end when
00:20:09
I'd be midway through a day and be I'd almost just laugh to myself. I'm like,
00:20:13
what am I doing? Like, why am I here? You know, but then I'd bring myself back. I'll be like, okay, I know exactly
00:20:19
why I'm here. I know exactly why I'm doing this. I know for whom. And my why
00:20:23
was just again, that was the biggest thing, the biggest driver. So, that kept me honest. But also having my crew
00:20:29
there, I would be so um black and white with how I was feeling with them. Now, I
00:20:34
had my uncle um he actually, this is a cool little story, he was essentially the crew chief for Steve Gurnie, one of
00:20:41
the uh most decorated coast to coast athletes in New Zealand's history. He was one of the main crew chiefs for him.
00:20:47
And he told me about the system, saying the 1 to 10 system, one being you need to go to a hospital, 10 being you could
00:20:54
conquer the world. And I'll just share that with the crew. Hey boys, I'm
00:20:57
feeling about a seven six. You know, that's how I'm at. Um sometimes we'd go
00:21:01
deeper. Generally, we wouldn't. it would just be like a bit of a metric for us to
00:21:05
kind of get a gauge as to where I'm at. Um, and in another sense, I also had one
00:21:10
thing I can't forget is I had Sam Pendre with me, one of my crew, but he was also
00:21:13
a pacer for me. So, a lot of those sections too where it would be very technical and very isolating. He would
00:21:19
actually come join a leg with me. So, having him there alone was like a real morale booster when I was in a dark
00:21:25
space. Sometimes, honestly, I'd love to get his perspective on it. We we would
00:21:29
be out there for 8 hours and we wouldn't even say a word, you know, sometimes
00:21:33
we'll just be in the zone. But having him there was just enough to kind of keep me, you know, all good, especially
00:21:38
when I was dark. Was that a was that a like a safety thing as well in case you fell off the side? Yeah, you could say
00:21:44
so. Safety thing. And it was also he was part of um helping me to get the FKT cuz
00:21:49
that was the initial that was part of the initial goal as well was finishing it, but it was also getting the FKT, the
00:21:54
fastest snow in time. So covering from Cape Panga to Bluff in the fastest time that anyone's ever done ever done, but
00:22:00
that went out the door by day 28. So yeah, which I'm sure we'll get to. Yeah.
00:22:07
Was that um Yeah. Did that bum you out? Yeah, it did. It did at first, but I was
00:22:11
so quick to just be like, "Oh, good. I know the main I know the main goal." I
00:22:14
knew that that was a um secondary goal. Yeah. I was very quick to just shift because I knew end of the day what I'm
00:22:21
going to quit or I'm going to be droopy. I've still got so much time ahead of me.
00:22:24
kind of got no energy to be bummed out by it. Yeah. How did you manage to break it down into
00:22:31
like daily daily chunks? Because I'm I'm just again I'm projecting if it was me
00:22:34
that was taking on a challenge like this, I think I' I could handle running like 50ks or 60ks in a day. But then the
00:22:41
prospect of I know it would be [ __ ] hard though on its own. Yeah. But then in my head I'd be like, "Oh, I can't I
00:22:47
can't keep doing this for another 100 days." Yeah. Yeah. You know, you know,
00:22:51
you get ahead of yourself. How did you how did you manage to stay in the moment in the day? Well, you you answered it.
00:22:56
That was I'd have to stay in the moment. I'd have to stay in the day. The moment
00:22:59
I'd start thinking ahead, the moment I'd start thinking about, you know, a month
00:23:02
away, two months away, it would just I'll just get super overwhelmed. Uh obviously, the mind would be going all
00:23:09
the way there. There would be times where I'd be thinking um like, [ __ ] what if I quit or what if I pull out or
00:23:16
what if I get injured or am I even going to do this? This is constant chatter. But every time that happened, I'll just
00:23:22
bring myself back to the footstep and then okay, I'm here now. I'm in the
00:23:24
bush. I've just got to get through this day. When I'd break it down into a day
00:23:28
though, I'd break it down into the legs. So by that I mean I'd start at my cuz I
00:23:34
had used this the crew and I we used this app. It was the Tadawa trail app and it has the distance markers in any
00:23:40
given day. So say if I'm in Kittykitty, that marker would have been maybe 258
00:23:45
kilometer marker. I'll meet the boys at 268. So 10k's away. So I'll just break
00:23:51
it down in my mind where I'd be like, "Oh, okay. I'm going to be this 10k leg.
00:23:55
So let's just get through this leg. Um, and by the time I get to the uh motor
00:23:59
home, I'll have some food. I have some rest and can start again. I'll just
00:24:02
break it down into the legs." Um, there'll be days though where I where it
00:24:07
would be in the bush. Um, and I'd be away from the boys for maybe upwards to
00:24:10
three four days, which is something I listened to in our podcast where I said, "Oh, I'll be upwards for two days."
00:24:15
There's no there was sections where it would be like three three and a half days till I'd see the boys. So in those
00:24:20
instances what did you have like a little you had like a little camel back with a leg on it was it was like a fast
00:24:26
pack. It was a 32 L fast pack. So I had my sleeping bag all that stuff and it had like the front front flask holder uh
00:24:33
and it had my camel back my my bladder in the back. So I had all of that. Um Sam was with me for this specific leg as
00:24:39
well. Um that duration and we'll just break it down to huts. getting to the hearts would probably take four upwards
00:24:44
to six hours. Let's just get to that heart. Let's have a quick rest, quick
00:24:48
food, and go again. So, it would be breaking it down by legs. That was the only way to kind of rationalize and
00:24:54
process the extent of what was ahead of me. Especially when I was about 50 days in, halfway allegedly, I'm like, [ __ ]
00:25:01
I'm only halfway. Like, it was it was extreme. But again, I had to break it down to the days. The mind wanders. You
00:25:08
can't stop the mind wandering. Uh that was something I learned. You know, you
00:25:11
can have all the tools, you can have all the practices, all the mantras, but when
00:25:15
your mind's going there, you can't stop it. So, how do you deal with that when
00:25:19
your mind's overwhelmed with the prospect of what's ahead? Okay, just chunk it. Chunk it. Yeah. Yeah. Me
00:25:26
personally, when I've been doing um like challenging events, and again, it's like
00:25:30
I'm I'm not comparing myself to you at all, but when things get get hard, um I
00:25:35
almost come up with this narrative in my mind like I I almost write the Instagram
00:25:38
post in my mind of what I'd say my reason for for not finishing us. That's
00:25:44
that's kind of reverse psychology in a way. No, it's it's really negative. It's
00:25:48
like you can you my point being you can justify almost anything to yourself like
00:25:52
um you and and no one's going to no one's going to question it or whatever
00:25:56
but um yeah true by the same token I suppose you can retrain your mind to just not be negative. Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:03
Interesting. I guess it's a lot of it has to do as well with like your your choice you know. Yeah. You can you can
00:26:10
train your mind to not be negative but it's always going to be. It's got that
00:26:13
negative bias built in it, right? Cuz it's a evolutionary mechanism allegedly.
00:26:18
So that's always going to be there, I think. But it's how you choose to view
00:26:21
that negative selft talk. You know, end of the day, I think we are the ones that
00:26:26
are um able to take the steps and do that movement. The mind's going to say what it's going to say, but you're still
00:26:32
the one that's going to do that thing. So the more the more equipped I guess
00:26:35
the more patient the more self-aware you are to be like okay well these are just
00:26:38
the thoughts which kind of came to the whole impetus of why I was doing this raise money for this foundation but to
00:26:44
show that dark days are inevitable are inevitable dark times are inevitable how you're able to uh sort of navigate that
00:26:52
and process through that is that's the beauty of life I think you've got to
00:26:56
understand and it comes to what you're saying now with those dark thoughts it's
00:26:59
always going to be there but how you able to process how you're able to step
00:27:02
through it. That's where the magic happens. Um, and in terms of nutrition, like you what do you eat every day? Like
00:27:09
how can you how can you eat enough to fuel the machine? You kind of can't. You
00:27:13
always been in a deficit. We we again I listened back to our episode and I said like, "Yeah, all this." Yeah. I'm not
00:27:19
going to have pasta. I'm not Dude, I had pasta. I had white bread. I had French
00:27:23
toast. I had pancakes, chips. Oh, man. If you could have seen my diet on this on this on this bench on this tabletop,
00:27:31
you would be shocked. But the the body was just utilizing it all. There was a certain day I probably had close
00:27:39
to 10 fizzy drinks in one day. For example, Coke, Bundberg, um you know those caracas, the whole nine yards. So
00:27:47
it was it was carbs was the easiest. Carbs came easy and then the rest was um just making sure I had enough protein.
00:27:54
Protein was vital. I Mitchell's they were my main sponsor. Mitchell's protein
00:27:58
powder. I use their stuff every single day. the organ supplements and the protein powder that was sort of
00:28:04
supplementary and then I had just like mints. Uh I ended up not having food I usually had which would be like steaks.
00:28:10
I didn't really want it for some reason. I wanted just more simple digestible
00:28:14
mints. So it would be like nachos, spaghetti bolognese, homemade burgers, things like that. And then um fats came
00:28:21
easy because when you eat a lot of processed food, you get a lot of fat with that. So that was kind of my
00:28:25
dayto-day. And how it would look in a day though would be morning um breakfast, lunch, dinner. They all have
00:28:30
a primary meal. So breakfast would be yeah as I said French toast, it would be pancakes. It would be bacon and eggs
00:28:38
with four or five hash browns. Um and then lunches would be like, you know, wraps. Um it could have been noodles,
00:28:46
several packs of noodles with egg chopped in with a protein shake. Um things like that. Then dinners. Dinners
00:28:52
were the heartiest. We try to make it the heartiest. Um Joel, who was the head chef, main crew member, he got real
00:28:59
experimental, never end. Started making like tortillas and wraps, nachos, like it was it was full banquet meal, but
00:29:06
constantly eating throughout the day to make sure that I would at least get close to the 5,000 6,000 marker of
00:29:15
calories cuz I was losing probably upwards of 7,000 in a day. So I'd always kind of be in a deficit somewhat. But
00:29:20
the thing that was real fascinating was I lost 10 kgs initially, probably halfway through the mission and then by
00:29:26
the time I got to about month two and a half, month three, I started to put weight back on. So that told me I was
00:29:32
actually meeting the quota that I was needing, which was a good thing. You don't want to be coming out of something
00:29:37
like this completely and depleted like from a weight perspective. Emanciated. Yeah. So exactly you managed to put on
00:29:44
weight. Put on weight. Yeah. So I managed to so I lost a 10 and then I put about five on. So I came out almost
00:29:51
neutral neutral body weight. People like Kan going, "Has he actually done it?
00:29:56
Dude's got fat." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hard. That would have been hilarious if I put
00:30:00
on like that much weight. Yeah. It was a good thing. It was a good thing cuz again it takes It makes I listened to um
00:30:06
Dean Carasses and he actually spoke to this. He's a Yeah. Ultra. He's one of my
00:30:11
one of my inspirations you could say. And yeah, he actually said that himself and I was like fascinating. So I kind of
00:30:18
made sure I probably started the thing that made it happen was probably I was having so many fizzy drinks you know I
00:30:23
should be sponsored by Bundberg honestly Bundberg Ginger be I was having average
00:30:28
them alone probably three to four a day just Bundberg perfect for Venora because
00:30:32
of a ginger so yeah amazing Bundberg give him a call um yeah Dean Kaneis who you're talking about he um he
00:30:40
became famous with his um bestselling book called um it's called ultramarathon
00:30:44
man and his his his um sort of shtick if you like early on was um he'd go for a
00:30:48
long run overnight and he'd take his phone with him and like order a pizza and then meet meet the pizza delivery
00:30:53
guy then roll the pizza up like a burrito and eat it and then case while he was running that's what was crazy you
00:30:58
know you would balance the yeah so so what like an average um so you you're just moving all day running all day
00:31:06
fueling all day um and average night what did that look like yeah the the sleeps were [ __ ] man like that was one
00:31:13
thing I was so pissed off at cuz I spoke to other people shout outs to George Henderson who actually holds currently
00:31:19
the FKT probably going to lose it now the Carl Sab a Belgium guy um he said by day by like two three weeks in he was
00:31:27
sleeping like a dream and he said oh I spoke to everyone else same thing [ __ ] man every night I'll get to bed but I'd
00:31:33
always wake up I'd just be jacked up body was sore I'll never get a good
00:31:38
night's sleep so that was one thing I was having to deal with every night every day just knowing that [ __ ] man I'm
00:31:44
not even going to get a good replenishing sleep, but you know, I still went to bed usually around 9 9:30
00:31:50
p.m. wake up 5:30 a.m. That was usually the that was kind of the Yeah, that was the formula, so to say. Sometimes I
00:31:58
would have to wake up at 4:30 due to the day ahead. It was just be have a day you
00:32:01
want to start early, but that was generally the the nights and yeah, it just sucked because sleep was never
00:32:06
really a a thing that would come and I'd never feel replenished, you know. So,
00:32:12
bed by 9:30. What sort of time were you finishing on the track each day? It depend. Sometimes it would be 9:30 p.m.
00:32:18
1000 p.m. Um, generally I'd love to look back probably probably 5:30 to 6:30.
00:32:26
That would be my mean time of finishing most days. Yeah. The So then then those on those days, those three hours before
00:32:34
bedtime. Yeah. Oh man, this is another thing. Hey, the fact that I was trying to raise money, the fact I was trying to
00:32:39
promote this thing, the fact I was trying to get major outreach, it became a job. I'd have to get home, I'd get the
00:32:44
pictures from Mark, I'd have a shower, which in its own self was a chore because we'd have to rig up, jerryrig
00:32:51
this shitty like shower unit or we'd have to do like a soft bucket. We'd have
00:32:56
to heat the water up. I'd have to wait for that. I'd be on my phone trying to
00:32:59
get the quote, get it get my caption all sorted. It became a chore, man. You had
00:33:04
all day to think about your caption. I know. Yeah, I know. I should have just done audio audio messages now I think
00:33:09
about it. But hey, um and that was how it looked. I'd have my shower, which is
00:33:14
it chore, then I'd have dinner and then I'll do my um Instagram post. But it
00:33:18
became so arduous, so taxing to my body that I almost was just going to be like,
00:33:23
"No, I just don't even want to do it." But but if I was trying to raise a
00:33:26
million dollars, I would have to put this content out there. And I think it had to be coming from me. I couldn't I
00:33:32
couldn't sort of outsource it to the crew. It just wouldn't have seemed authentic. So I made sure to hold to
00:33:36
that. Obviously it started to that there was more gaps as the mission got on because it just wasn't practical if I
00:33:42
was out in the bush. I had no reception. But that was how the evenings would look. Um best time of day was when I
00:33:48
finished eating my food. I'd done my post and I was just on bed resting knowing that bed will come in half an
00:33:53
hour, 30 minutes, an hour. That was the best time of day every day. Like the day
00:33:57
is done. Yes. Got through it. Yes. Now I can just go to bed and just be here. Yeah.
00:34:06
Yeah, when you whatever you do next, maybe there's a better way of doing it.
00:34:10
Like um even if it's um one of your crew, like just you know, hey Stefan, how do you feel? Doing it that way so
00:34:15
you don't have to [ __ ] worry about it. Yeah, big time. Like the only if you're doing something that
00:34:20
um that daunting like the only thing on your mind should be like doing the actual thing big time. That you bring a
00:34:27
good point. That would be something I'll change for next time. I would have I
00:34:31
would have set it up in a way where Yeah. I didn't have to focus so much of my energy, my brain energy on that. Um,
00:34:38
so next time, yeah, you bring up a very good point. Yeah. What about the relationship with the crew? Because this
00:34:44
is something we talked about in the first chat we had. Um, yeah. A lot of these sort of challenges
00:34:49
capitulate because Yeah. the crew ends up having a a fight with the athlete and because you you got to remember you're
00:34:56
busy all day doing the thing. Yeah. And they're sitting there twiddling their
00:34:59
fingers and thumbs waiting in a camper van driving to the next point. Um, but you had no no issues, no personal
00:35:05
questions. Honestly, we we were so dialed. Yeah, we were nothing. There's nothing to even like if anything, if
00:35:12
anything, we got like too close, you know? Let's just say, let's just say
00:35:17
there was moments where you're like, oo, what's going on here? You know, we we
00:35:21
got comfortable. We were just just Yeah. It got to the point where like there there was nothing to hide. They just saw
00:35:29
the whole they saw all of me. Let's put it that way, you know? like things things just got so so out the gate
00:35:36
hilarious funny that we were just like and I got no space to like I've just got
00:35:40
I've got to get changed there boys I've got [ __ ] to do I'm just I'm you know
00:35:44
like it it was good I was happy unless they were like blatantly lying to my face nothing nothing went wrong. It was
00:35:50
probably a moment where Mark and Joel, they actually best friends prior, they had a they had like a play fight and it
00:35:56
got serious and they actually ended up punching each other, but that that had nothing to do with like the synergy of
00:36:01
the of the thing. It was just their own thing. So, fortunately, that was okay. Yeah, there was one actually I must
00:36:08
say, shout outs to Jesse. He came cuz Mark had to leave the last three weeks. Um, and then Joel's best mate, his mate
00:36:18
Jesse, he actually came in and filled probably for about a week and a bit. And like, yeah, he was there. He was all in.
00:36:25
He was dialed. He was so so dialed. And then I I I see Joel one day and and I'm
00:36:31
like, "Yo, where's Jesse?" He's like, "Oh, he's gone, bro." I'm like, "The
00:36:34
[ __ ] do you mean he's gone?" "Yeah, he's just having some [ __ ] going on." And I'm
00:36:39
like, "What?" Like, "What do you mean, bro?" Like, "Give me." and then he just
00:36:43
he just left with a week to go the line. So if anything that would be of one uh crew component that was a bit shifty but
00:36:51
he had his reasons and we we spoke about it had nothing to do with us. It was his
00:36:55
own thing but that would have probably been the only crew thing that went went out of the gate and it was only a week
00:36:59
to go. Random he missed the victory lap. You missed the good bit. Yeah, man. And
00:37:04
that's why I was gutted. I was like dude like you've been so dialed like surely
00:37:09
one other week and Yeah. He just Yeah. his own thing. Well, that must that keeping the crew together, especially
00:37:15
for that period of time. Uh that must say a lot about you. You must have been quite respectful with them. Yeah. Uh I
00:37:21
think so. Did you ever lose your cool? I mean, it's it's hard cuz if you you
00:37:24
know, you're always in pain. You're always exhausted. Yeah. In a way, but
00:37:27
nothing out the gate. I was I think by that point I was so regulated with my emotions as dynamic and as intense as
00:37:34
they were, I never put it out on them. And if I did, it was very honest. There was one instance where this was the
00:37:40
start of the South Island. Um, it was justified, let's put it that way. It was
00:37:44
the start of the South Island. I had Sam with me on this leg. We did the Queen Charlotte Trail 72K
00:37:49
uh leg. That was in one day. We get there, we start cuz we had to get a ferry taxi from Pikton that took us to
00:37:55
the head of Queen Charlotte Trail. So, we already started that at about 9:45 a.m., which is the latest start we'd
00:38:01
ever done in the whole mission to run 72K. So, we did that. We were well um you know in communication with the boys
00:38:08
as to when we're going to be meeting them there. We get to the finished it was about 9:30 p.m. The boys went there.
00:38:14
They're like, "Oh, we we we did this post and it just took longer." And I saw
00:38:19
I was like, "Fuck, boys." Like quite frankly, I don't give a [ __ ] about
00:38:23
Instagram and the post if it means that it's going to um mean I'm getting later
00:38:28
to the motor home and I'm showering later, I'm eating later. All that [ __ ]
00:38:32
goes to the side. like I need you to focus on like my needs. Frankly, Sam understood it and the boys that was the
00:38:38
only time where I was probably like stern and angry at them, but they completely took it on board. They
00:38:43
respected, they understood, which I was grateful for. I hope I didn't come across as a dick to them, but they said
00:38:48
no, it was justified. So, that was the only real instance where it was like, yo, there was a other couple things
00:38:54
where they came late. Um, but that was just that was just things dialing in, you know, they were still kind of
00:38:59
settling into their role as to how it looked. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm I'm
00:39:04
again that grateful piece, man. Like I'm just grateful that they were abled and and willing to have stayed as
00:39:12
long as they did. Um I had a friend as well, he mentioned, you know, it's a it
00:39:17
goes to show the the the key and the component of having a team and how much this things like this you need to have a
00:39:24
good team, you know. So, again, I was blessed with that. Brilliant. Did you did you have any um injuries? Yeah.
00:39:32
Yeah. Day two. Day two, man. Oh, no. That obviously nothing that threatened to derail the whole campaign. Wow.
00:39:39
That's the thing, man. Like when you're in it, you're like, "Holy [ __ ] This
00:39:43
could derail the whole campaign, especially on day two." Exactly. Like nothing. Nothing real acute, let's put
00:39:49
it that way, where it would be like a rolled ankle. It was chronic injuries that came over time of just the
00:39:55
battering I was giving my body. So yeah, day two, 90 mile beach, slight camber, ever so slight ankle flared up, agony.
00:40:04
Day four, like nearly crying. I think I did cry at one point in the day. You know those ankle um calf guard
00:40:10
compression? Um I don't know what you call them, socks. Yeah. Yeah. I put that
00:40:15
on the start of the day. By the end of the day, I I was so close. I would have had to have cut them because the
00:40:20
swelling was so intense. I had Sam trying to like pull them off. I'm like, "Nah, no, no, get out. I'll I'll sort
00:40:26
it, bro." I didn't want to cut them, but I was very close to. And like dealing
00:40:29
with that day four, it was so overwhelming for my brain to be like, "How the heck am I going to get through
00:40:35
this thing if already I'm in excruciating pain day four so injured?" And then somehow I was just like, "Well,
00:40:42
this is it. This is why I'm doing it." That was one instance. There was another
00:40:45
instance when I did the Tim Hima trail, which was around not far from kind of in
00:40:50
the Talpo region heading towards um Tom Renui way. Yeah, exactly. Correct. Yeah.
00:40:56
Yeah. Real big for mountain bikers. Huge. Huge. And that was a huge leg as well. The last portion of that leg was
00:41:02
about 34k and at that point I'd already done um 50 60 70. Yeah. I'd already done
00:41:08
about 42 about a marathon's worth. So I had to finish off the day. Ended up being a 77k day. That last leg I had
00:41:15
another injury come up. And like that was a moment too where it was I I I did kind of you know a few tears came out my
00:41:22
eyes just cuz it was just it felt like too much and I had to work through that. But that was one moment again where I
00:41:28
was like [ __ ] what am I doing here? Like why am I here? You know I all this processing and the injury it was it was
00:41:35
preventing me from just getting a solid gate. But it got to the point I had Sam with me on this last leg too which was a
00:41:40
a godsend. Um having him there and just seeing him in his rhythm he was fresh. seen him move so fluidly, I was like,
00:41:47
"Okay, I've just got to just got to stick with him." You know, I can't get
00:41:50
rescued. I can't get out of here. The boys can't come to pick me. I just need
00:41:53
to keep moving. You know, those were those were very specific instances where the injuries just were like, you know,
00:41:59
how how can I how can I do this? Um, and there was other areas too where my ankle, like cuz the terrain was so
00:42:08
variant, I I'll take a step and my ankle just would never roll. It happened probably 10 15 times where it's like
00:42:14
[ __ ] how did my ankle not roll just then so many times where that would have been game over, but it just didn't
00:42:20
happen. So that was more luck more than anything. But yeah, it was those few injuries that just Yeah, the body's just
00:42:25
so adaptive. You know, if you just keep going and it's not a break and you you
00:42:30
haven't snapped something, you can Yeah, you can work through a lot. Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah, it really
00:42:37
is. So, what was your biggest day and and your shortest day? Shortest day would have been the um
00:42:44
would have been the um Tadors. Biggest day would have been probably the Timber Trail. 70 77k day.
00:42:51
What was the Tador? Tadors. Yeah. So that was the day I got rescued. Yeah. Sam and I we got rescued. Um it was 20
00:42:59
23k. What was that? Yeah. You were chop it out, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just just so Yeah. So the Tador is that's
00:43:04
near sort of Palmus Northway. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Heading Yeah, exactly. heading towards um Wellington and you're
00:43:11
you're you're just on the cusp of that region. Um yeah, so we went in super
00:43:16
underprepared in in in hindsight, but at the time we're like, "Yeah, let's move
00:43:19
quick." We had our shorts. Well, I had my shorts, had my socks, had my shoes,
00:43:24
um had my t-shirt, had my backpack, and had a shitty rain jacket. I had one set of dehydrated food. And our plan was to
00:43:32
get through the whole Tador ranges, which to those that don't know, it's
00:43:37
you're looking at close to 5,000 meters elevation gain. Um, and I think it's
00:43:42
about 80k 80k worth. So that's a big shift. Big shift. But you're you're
00:43:47
dealing with ridge lines. It's not runnable. You're hiking. To do that in
00:43:51
one day is is is extreme, you know. So we went in with that mentality. And by the time we're about 4 hours in, we're
00:43:58
like, [ __ ] this weather is bad. We're like, let's keep pressing on. Bad as in
00:44:01
like stormy or zero visibility. Yeah, zero visibility. Um, I guess you couldn't say stormy, but zero
00:44:08
visibility. It started to hail. Um, you started to get some crosswinds that were
00:44:12
just like, yeah, I haven't experienced anything like it. That coupled with hail
00:44:16
slapping your face, like little little like little flicks constantly the whole time, you know, little burns. Little
00:44:22
burns. And then we got on this ridge line and and it was that point where I looked at my hands and I was like, "Holy
00:44:28
shit." My hands were like nearly white. I don't know if you know what reayoords
00:44:32
is. Oh, I have it. Do you? Yeah, I have reards. Yeah. Oh, [ __ ] Well, you know,
00:44:36
exactly. I literally I literally had that on both hands. I didn't get reoords
00:44:40
too, but my hand it was almost like right. All my hands were like white. That was when I was like, "Holy [ __ ]
00:44:46
this is serious [ __ ] now." But because I was moving, I knew I I wouldn't go
00:44:51
hypotherm. just had to keep moving. So, we got to the hut and it was that point it went all downhill for me. My I had a
00:44:57
emergency blanket that ripped. Sam was okay cuz his blanket was intact and it was a better quality one. We got our
00:45:03
food in and it was at that point where it's like, okay, so at this point it was
00:45:07
23ks were done and then yeah, we we were there shivering. We had to make the call. Okay, well these are our options.
00:45:13
We ether keep going, which is more exposure, go back out in the cold. We've cooled down so we have to heat up. So
00:45:19
that's a factor. We have to get this food in us. That's something we've got
00:45:23
no food left to carry us going. Um, and we can't go back or we pull the pin and
00:45:30
realize that we have to be rescued. So, we obviously did the the um the ladder because the what the
00:45:37
lad the So, what do you do? You have like a a sat. Yeah. It's like a like a little gin in reach. So, it's
00:45:43
technically not a PLB per se, but it has a SOS beacon. Um, so yeah, we did that and it was a seven-hour process of back
00:45:51
and forth communication. Bless Sam. I was in my I was in my blanket, that wasn't even a blanket, shriveled up,
00:45:58
like genuinely scared for my life cuz I thought I was going to get hypothermia. Freezing trying to keep myself cool. And
00:46:05
Sam was trying to get the signal out. You know, this is a 7-hour process of dealing with the rescue services. They
00:46:12
weren't going to come because the weather was far too volatile, far too dangerous for their choppers. And
00:46:17
eventually we got in, well the rescue services, Lanca, I believe they got in touch with um the Air Force and they
00:46:24
sent NH90 to come and extract us after about 7 hours of this back and forth communication line. Uh yeah, man. It was
00:46:31
it was real deal [ __ ] like thinking being in your head in a place of like [ __ ] I'm going to die. I could possibly
00:46:38
die. Like it was it was intense to deal with. And then that coupled with being cold. But knowing that we're in the
00:46:44
heart, knowing that these guys would at least come to us if it meant them hiking
00:46:47
up. Hey, at least we had that. We just have to drive this out. It'll be an uncomfortable night, but it'll be
00:46:52
possible. I can we can get through this. You know, there was a point too where I
00:46:55
was like, yo, like Sammy, I think we might have to like just spoon each other, you know, might have to get each
00:47:01
other's body heat. I was like, if this is the case, and this is the case, man,
00:47:04
this is what we have to deal with. Um, but fortunately, it didn't go there. We
00:47:08
got rescued in time. But yeah, so that that being our our shortest day. Yes. So you get airlifted off and then
00:47:16
what? Get airlifted off and then we have to obviously process what happened. The
00:47:23
um air force were actually quite gracious. They didn't give us any [ __ ] for what happened. They they they went
00:47:28
there was a report that Lancar did um as to what went wrong. We just let them know. We're completely underprepared.
00:47:33
Completely our own fault. We didn't Yeah. We didn't divert any of the blame.
00:47:38
Uh so yeah, that was part of that. And then the next day we went into town and basically just got better supplies,
00:47:43
better equipped. Um that night I actually cried cuz I was overwhelmed about having to go out there the next
00:47:49
day. So we had that day off to get supplies and then we had to go out the following morning and that was the first
00:47:55
time on the mission where I actually like freaked out. I felt I'm out of my depth there. I can't do this. This is
00:47:59
too much. And had to work through that. had the [ __ ] of sleep that night because
00:48:03
I couldn't sleep because I was so focused on thinking about what we're going to have to do. And then yeah, we
00:48:08
went out again that same day, but we had to turn around again because the weather
00:48:11
was just too volatile. It was too adverse. So, we were like, nah, like we've been here. We know what we're in
00:48:17
for. It's just it's just I think there was a part of it too. I was just too I
00:48:21
was just too traumatized. Let's put it that way. I was too shook up. I didn't
00:48:25
think I had it in me to go back out there. Had I gone out there on a fresh day in that sort of weather with the
00:48:29
gear I had that we had, I could have done it. We could have, but I was I was too shook up, you know. It was still
00:48:35
hailing as well. So, I was like, nah. Like, I'm not com I'm not confident. I'm
00:48:39
not comfortable. Yeah. Like some mild PTSD or something in a way. Yeah. And that there was at that moment where I
00:48:46
was like, okay, the um FKT is officially done cuz I had to turn around and do a reroute. The moment you do a reroute,
00:48:54
you're it's not allegible as a official FKT. So it was that moment where I was
00:48:58
like, well man, this is I want to do this thing and this is the and I realized in that moment that's mission
00:49:03
is bigger than me now. I'm just doing this thing. This is like this is like a
00:49:06
a momentum. This is like a life lesson that I think I'll hold for the rest of
00:49:10
my life where you have something you're so fixated on one thing but you have to
00:49:14
divert, change course and get after it another way. Still get after it but get after it in another angle. So yeah. Such
00:49:21
a bummer though. Yeah, it was. It sucked. Like I was gutted, but I was like, "Well, just got to keep moving,
00:49:28
you know." Yeah. What do you do? Did you Oh, did you did you get lost many times?
00:49:33
Never. Never lost in the sense like went off course or went a different route and
00:49:38
I was like, "Oh, shit." Never. Never lost cuz I had the app, had my phone.
00:49:42
Um, and there was markers along the way. Mostly. Mostly. There was moments where
00:49:47
I took a wrong turn because there was a marker, but it turned out to be another marker and a fork. And that would
00:49:52
frustrate me cuz it would add extra K and a half. Uh but yeah, never never lost in the in the true sense of the
00:49:58
word cuz I've done parts of the trail and and in some parts there's um those
00:50:01
those metal poles I think they're called warars. They're just like spray painted
00:50:05
orange at the top and they'll have them every couple hundred meters and it's at
00:50:08
times it's you're like am I on the right path? Am I on the right path big time?
00:50:12
That that would happen. That's when we would have to just bring out our phone
00:50:14
or or you could generally see okay there's a path here and then you end up seeing it. But there was definitely
00:50:20
moments where you have to you second guess for sure especially when you're in
00:50:23
like the deep bush you know there's like not a marked path per se and you're like
00:50:28
holy [ __ ] There was m one moment in particular where I went off course in such a way and somehow my app wasn't
00:50:36
lining up to the course and I was like oh okay but it was only a five minute lost scenario. Oh see I'd be furious
00:50:44
about that. Yeah. 5 minutes of that and I was like, "Okay, sweet. I'm all good."
00:50:47
And I found the path again. Yeah. Um Yeah. And what about um memorable interactions or conversations with
00:50:55
strangers? Yeah. Big time. You bump into heaps of heaps of cool people. Yeah. It
00:50:59
seems like the crew got more of that than me. Um but I definitely had some memorable interactions. There was one
00:51:04
instance where it was actually uh when we were in Kitaya, there was a this old fellow that came up and he saw the
00:51:10
mission, the long path. He's like, "Fuck." He was like, "Fuck the long
00:51:13
path. No one wants to do the long path, you know. We're sick of, you know, we're
00:51:18
sick of the long path. And I got talking. I'm like, well, brother, it's the long path that brings us to the most
00:51:23
meaning, the most change, the most, you know, difference. You know, it's it's
00:51:26
the long path that we need to take in life sometimes. And he he he agreed. And then he actually stopped and spoke to us
00:51:32
and just laid it all out to us. Spoke about his family, spoke about I think I think it may be his son or his nephew
00:51:38
that took his life. He just opened up to us. just open book just shared this journey with us, shared his his traumas,
00:51:44
his pains and hearing that so early on just gave me more fuel for the mission. That was a real distinct moment. And
00:51:50
there was another instance where I met um when you walk the Tadawa trail, you either go northbound or southbound. And
00:51:58
then the colloial term that they have is you're either a nobo or you're a sobo.
00:52:04
Sobo being southbound, nobo being northbound. So I would meet people that were noobs
00:52:10
uh as I was coming down and then I'd meet them back again and have these interactions real real great
00:52:16
interactions and there was one instance where I met a lady that was a no-bo and I'd got to bluff came back and she was
00:52:22
like oh my god Stefan we had like a great conversation she had about her you know her journey and she was an older
00:52:29
lady too like probably in her mid60s um so instances like that but I'd love to
00:52:34
um hear it from the boys cuz they had much more interactions like that in Tlanui tooli. The lady gave me um cash
00:52:43
on the road cuz I told her I got offered lift probably three four times in that city alone. Real real interesting
00:52:49
dynamic in that little place of New Zealand. And then the boys had instances all the time where people would come up
00:52:54
to them gas stations, give them cash, they would stop and talk, share their story. And sorry, there's one other
00:53:00
instance too in Benham. Um shout outs to Damian. Uh he's he was actually a recovering meth addict. amazing story
00:53:07
and he's gone deep down the path of um what would you say male empowerment let's put it that way he's focused
00:53:15
massively on mental health for men and just men allowing to be men um he opened up and shared his story with me and
00:53:22
another lady in the same day probably an hour apart stellar amazing woman she confessed that she actually attempted to
00:53:29
take her life and she turned her life around and um now has three kids and is on this path of discovering herself So
00:53:36
those sorts of interactions they it makes it more it makes it easier to endure what I was enduring and just
00:53:42
having them share so honestly and so rawly their their story their instances. Yeah. It's incredibly powerful. Yeah. Um
00:53:50
and I suppose people see what you're doing and they they know discover what your why is and it sort of creates that
00:53:56
um like vulnerability exchange. Um yeah. Oh. So what is what's the easiest way to
00:54:01
do it? So or nobo? I suppose I suppose you'd say no because you would you know you've already done
00:54:09
half of it so yeah I'd say it's hard for you to have a balanced opinion on Yeah.
00:54:13
Yeah. I would probably say no bow. It's hard maybe. Yeah. Because Yeah. cuz I think it's more
00:54:22
punchy and you've got the leadup to like what you're going through and then it's
00:54:27
like hard and then it's all downhill so to say like you get through the hard
00:54:32
part which is Tadoras Richmond Rangers and uh wild past other big three that's
00:54:37
at the end of the South Island the beginning end of the north island beginning of the South Island then it's
00:54:42
all downhill so to say to the finish when you do it no bro you kind have to get through that then you've still got
00:54:46
the whole country ahead I don't know it depends how you look at it but I would
00:54:50
say Um uh nobo uh sobo would have been probably the more uh forgiving way, easier way, better way. Is that is that
00:54:59
what the world's hardest skis is doing? Is he doing sobo? Yeah, he'll be doing
00:55:01
sobo. Yeah, a [ __ ] Yeah. Yeah. Tag tag. Yeah. Let's Hey, let's clip this. Yeah.
00:55:11
Um that'll hopefully get him, you know. Yeah. Um Yeah. Would you want to Would
00:55:16
you want to do some legs with them? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. clip that definitely. Um, what about um mantras or anything?
00:55:23
Do you have any mantras that you or things that you said to yourself over and over again through the um well not
00:55:29
necessarily mantras but just like you know I'm Jerome Jerome you know I'm here
00:55:34
uh thank you God thank you body that's something I actually do a lot in races
00:55:38
too um I'd be grateful to the body I'd pray every single day um that would help
00:55:42
me so much man like cuz yeah I'm just remembering why I'm doing this it's my
00:55:47
reminder mantras not so much but just like selft talk it was always a selft talk you know
00:55:52
I'm in this I'm doing this, you know, I'm in this. I'm doing this. I'm in
00:55:56
this. That was one that would be reoccurring, especially when I was in a real dark space. Okay, this is why I'm
00:56:01
doing this. This is why this is why. That would be like my Yeah. echoing self talk. And the last couple of kilometers
00:56:09
like along um along the path to the the lighthouse at Cape Ranger, what the [ __ ]
00:56:14
was that like, bro? That was it was it was ecstatic. I was so so lucky that I had uh Jerome's two best mates, Maurice
00:56:23
and Tom. They joined me for a few legs, but they joined me specifically for this
00:56:28
last portion. They met me on that last bit of the beach. We just hugged and we just ran it out and just it was just it
00:56:34
was bliss, man. Like when I saw the lighthouse, I started welling up. I was like I was like just like [ __ ] it's
00:56:41
there. I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Like that was intense emotions. Very intense. So
00:56:47
much elation and then I saw my mom she was like Stefan came and hugged me amazing feeling but when I saw the
00:56:54
lighthouse yeah like I could only put it up to like say you know when his belt back like I'd
00:57:03
imagine it would have felt like like to explain it I I'd love to talk to him and
00:57:08
ask him but I would imagine that that's what it would have felt like is probably
00:57:11
what I felt like like I did this seemingly impossible thing and it was done it was
00:57:16
you know, I'd achieved it. Obviously, not like how I planned, not how I had it
00:57:21
in my mind, but I'd done it. And I had my family there and I had the LCP boys
00:57:26
there and I had some support there. I had one of my best mates there, Jack. Um, just it's like I'd done it, you
00:57:32
know? It was just such an amazing feeling. If you could encapsulate that, honestly, you would be a
00:57:37
multi-billionaire. That that sort of state. But to get to that, I had to go through so much [ __ ]
00:57:45
your four months, you know, four months. Most people listen be like, "Oh, is it
00:57:48
worth it?" They're having that feeling after that's that's it goes to show that
00:57:52
you Yeah, I think you you have more of the bad times when you do the good. And I think that's a harsh thing with life.
00:57:58
But if the more you can find peace in the in the bad times and that they're there to teach you, they're valuable.
00:58:04
They're not throwaway days, you know, every hard day, you know, you know what
00:58:08
it's like. Say even put in the term of going for a run. You know, I saw your
00:58:12
post I think the other day like you never want to get out of bed, but when you do, you never regret it. I feel
00:58:17
there's kind of a that's a glimmer as to what it's like, but except it's
00:58:21
obviously extended into this big chunk of time. And then you finish. And what does what does that night look like? Do
00:58:28
you do you sleep peacefully knowing that you don't have to get up the next day?
00:58:31
Yeah. Do you go for dinner with your family? And No, my family had to go cuz mom had school, I think, leading in so
00:58:37
she had to go. But I had I had the crew had a few beers. We got some pizzas, laughed, celebrated. Um going into bed,
00:58:44
it was it was a cool feeling, man. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, it's done. Job done."
00:58:49
So satisfying. You know, I don't have to run tomorrow. Like I don't have to I
00:58:54
could I don't have to. It was an insane feeling. Like the the morning, beg you pardon, the last
00:59:03
morning, the last day, that was a morning where I woke up. I'm like, "Oh
00:59:07
my god." Like, in the scheme of things, I've only got to run 40k, which for some
00:59:10
is still a long way, but only 40k today. Oh my god. It was flat on the sand. It's
00:59:16
flat. Yeah, exactly. And I've got I had a few of the crew there with me to to
00:59:21
run at Sam as well cuz he he'd had to leave in the cargo and he joined me the
00:59:26
last three days, which was amazing to have him. Um but yeah, that last bit man it was just yeah there's no words really
00:59:35
just joy man pure ecstasy pure gratitude bliss all the positive sensations you know there was and then only after the
00:59:44
fact where I started to feel like a sense of grief started to feel a sense of almost depression um sadness uh that
00:59:51
came after a couple days after uh so yeah why do you think that was I think focusing been so much on this
01:00:00
thing for so long. Giving everything to it, my physical and my spiritual and my mental um well-being and having a crew
01:00:09
for so long, being with that same group of people for so long, all those things that to be just gone, severed. It's
01:00:16
done. Uh yeah, it kind of felt like a sense of meaninglessness. What now? You know what? Like all the
01:00:25
noise is gone. you know, no one's saying like, well, good job. No, you know, it's
01:00:30
just done. It's dead. So, I think all those factors uh and I think it required
01:00:35
me to reflect and I'm still am reflecting. I'm writing. I'm trying to
01:00:38
write a lot. Even this podcast, it's a sense of reflection. It's bringing up
01:00:42
things that I haven't really thought about. Um, I think it's required me to
01:00:45
stop and process and sit with it and be at peace because end of the day, uh, this is where I think you start, you
01:00:53
know, let's have a drug drug um, addict analogy here that you keep chasing the
01:00:57
dragon. I've just got to make sure to be like, okay, next thing, next thing. It's
01:01:01
like, no, sit back, relax in a sense, process. It's forced me to stop. Yeah,
01:01:07
forced me to stop. It's funny you should bring that up because I was going to say
01:01:09
the exact same thing cuz when you came in for the podcast the first time um you said you started like endurance sport
01:01:15
because um you needed to escape your in your words deplorable habits and you talked about um you drug addiction,
01:01:22
alcohol, pornography, all those things. Um yeah, you don't want to fall into
01:01:27
that trap of like just trying to up yourself every time with these extreme events cuz I suppose that in itself is a
01:01:33
form of potential addiction. Big time. Big time. It's a funny it's it's the
01:01:37
caveat I think of everyone everyone faces in the endurance community whether you're a triathlete ultra runner how do
01:01:43
you manage that how do you balance that and the more you can go forward towards something that's bringing of meaning of
01:01:49
value I think you're in the right pocket so for me now it's like okay just rest
01:01:54
digest so to say and next thing will come it'll come um I've got an idea but
01:02:01
it'll come when it comes the right time will emerge just don't want to chase it
01:02:04
though don't want to become like you you know like another I don't want it to
01:02:07
become my idol you know what I mean and and you also don't want it to become a a
01:02:12
burden I suppose the natural question is for people people to ask you what's next
01:02:15
and even if there is no next that's fine as well you'd want to do something
01:02:22
because you want to do something not because you feel pressure to do it because yeah that's so true I remember
01:02:28
listening to Ned Brockman say those exact words as you played them that you it's got to be for you cuz he can agree
01:02:34
with this and I can agree is that when you're doing something where you're
01:02:37
pushing your body to that limit very quickly, extrinsic motivation is going to cease. It's got to be I think it has
01:02:46
to be because when your back's against the wall, why are you doing it? Oh, cuz
01:02:50
everyone Well, then that's going to dwindle so quick, you know? It has to come from inside. It has to be of
01:02:55
something of value and provide something of value to others. And that's ties into
01:02:59
this whole thing, right? It's for the for the men ultimately, women too, 100%.
01:03:03
But men and my brother, he he he went through what he went through. And how can we stop that
01:03:10
and right now I know that doing this for men and doing this in that space, that's
01:03:16
where it's got to be. That's where the attention's got to go and that's where
01:03:18
my energyy's going to go. So yeah, I'm just I'm patient, man. I'm not in any
01:03:22
rush. Uh but I must admit, I'm keen to get training again because I got I got
01:03:26
an event coming up, a race. Um hopefully I'll be all good, but if not, again, I
01:03:31
don't care. I'll wait. Uh but yeah, I'm keen to get moving again. But it's it's
01:03:36
been good, man. The recovery, even just being here reflecting, it helps. It actually really helps. Yeah. Your own
01:03:42
mental health, you good good. As I said, it was a bit dark those those weeks and
01:03:47
a bit. Um but good, man. I'm I'm energized. Yeah. And yeah, you knew Jerome um
01:03:56
like better than almost anyone. So, I think you could, it's safe to um say you
01:04:00
can answer this answer this question with a degree of accuracy. Um yeah, what would he think?
01:04:06
He would be like, "Fuck." That would be his language. He'll just be like, "Fuck,
01:04:12
unreal. Amazing." He'd be happy. He'd be stoked. He would He would be He would be
01:04:19
proud. I know Jerome. Uh yeah, he was always always so supportive of my endeavors. all of our family and he'll
01:04:27
just be so supportive. He'll be like, "Mean, brother, you're all in." He
01:04:31
probably wouldn't get it as to why, but he would be stoked. Yeah. Yeah. You're
01:04:37
you're deeply um spiritual. Did were were there times on the Tiad Trail that
01:04:42
you could sort of feel his presence or sense his presence or Yeah. Yeah. How how did that look? Was it a like a tuy
01:04:48
in a tree or was it a sunrise or the sky? Skies, clouds, and horses. seeing horses. Drum loved horses, especially
01:04:56
never latter part of his um life. He loved horses. Whenever I'd see a horse,
01:05:00
I'd be like, "Yeah, it would just have that sense of warmth, you know." And
01:05:04
then it was sometimes through when I would the odd times I'd listen to music
01:05:09
and there was one instance where a song would come on that was his song uh and it would just be like Yeah. just start
01:05:15
crying with the motion, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like there was a lot of a
01:05:19
lot of tears. Yeah. Yeah. What do you reckon? Most most days or every second day? No, I've just shared I've just
01:05:26
happened to share it that I have. No, honest surprisingly probably five five six times where it would be like
01:05:32
instances. There was one day in particular. It was just after Your pass South Island. It was just before a goat
01:05:39
pass. That was the shittest day I'd probably had the whole mission. Um I was
01:05:43
just overwhelmed, you know, everything compounding, everything collapsing on itself. That was a hard day. And I was
01:05:50
actually listening to Hardis Giza's book and for some reason he mentioned about
01:05:54
this inmate that killed himself and then from there it just went all downhill. I
01:05:58
was just thinking about Jerome and thinking about the intensity of this whole thing, why I'm here. I felt so
01:06:03
alone in that moment. I had no crew there. I couldn't see them for another 35 40k. Uh that was an overwhelming
01:06:11
moment. That was one particular moment where I just broke down. And then Sam came and I just I just Yeah. broke down,
01:06:17
you know, and it was a good it's a good place to be because there's nothing to
01:06:21
hide, you know. I've got nothing to prove. Uh but yeah. Yeah. Honestly, those were those were the few instances
01:06:27
where where tears would come and obviously the finish line was probably the most positive tears I felt.
01:06:34
Yeah, that that amazes me. I'm surprised there wasn't more because like um yeah,
01:06:37
physically you just broken down as much as what a human being can be. which makes you more emotional big time. Big
01:06:43
time. Yeah. I think there's only so much like I definitely, you know, as I've
01:06:47
shared, I cry, but there was it was more just the mental just the distress of just like [ __ ] why am I It was like
01:06:54
frustration and anger. That was the main overriding emotions. It's like, [ __ ]
01:06:58
why am I here? How can I do this? It's impossible. It's not possible. That was
01:07:03
more of an onslaught of emotions, not tears. Those were daily. Those emotions. Yeah. Are you proud of yourself?
01:07:12
Yeah. Yeah. But again, pride. It's a funny word, Dom. It's a [ __ ] funny
01:07:17
word, man. Um, but I am. I am, man. Like, all I know is like I can look back on this now and be like, [ __ ] damn, I
01:07:31
did that. You know, it's it's it's it's an empowering place to be. I'm just
01:07:37
excited now about what's to come, what's next, and how can I continue to add
01:07:42
value to this cause that I've decided to, you know, that this this cause that's essentially slapped me in the
01:07:48
face is mental health and suicide prevention ultimately. How? So, it gives me that, but yeah. Yeah, man. Well, I
01:07:55
mean, yeah. For the charity, the last last chance project who you raised $231,000 for, like I I can't imagine
01:08:01
their debt of gratitude. Um but for a personal um perspective for Stefan Ozich, it's like you haven't just like
01:08:09
redefined your personal physical boundaries like you've smashed them. Yeah. Cool way of putting it and that's
01:08:16
kind of why this race I've got coming up. It's a backyard ultra 6.7K every
01:08:22
hour on the hour. It's a great format. Last man standing pretty much. It's a
01:08:25
great format. Um that for me is a big monkey on my back and it's like okay I
01:08:30
know I know I've got this in me. I've only done it twice and I've fully missed
01:08:35
the mark of where I want to be. It's like, okay, this for me is like this is
01:08:39
going to be like a real litmus test for me now. Uh but again, not rushing into it. If I'm not ready, not ready. I'll
01:08:45
wait. But yeah, you're right, man. That's a good good point. Shattered it.
01:08:50
Yeah. Are we are we calling out Sam Harvey as well as um Russ Cook? Sam Harvey is like the New Zealand king of
01:08:57
backyard. He's the man. He's big. Yeah. I've actually done a podcast for Sam
01:09:01
Harvey. He's a very interesting man. Uh like yeah, he he knows his [ __ ] He's
01:09:07
doing his thing. He's got his way of approaching it and I respect that. You know, obviously I'd like to be to the
01:09:13
line with him. Absolutely. I ain't going to deny that. I've just got work to do
01:09:16
cuz that man's he's definitely far ahead of me in that game. Oh, he he's he's a
01:09:20
savage. Yeah, I had him on the podcast a couple of years ago. He's a great guy.
01:09:23
Great guy. Yeah, the backyard ultra thing. It intrigues me. But I I hate sleep deprivation worse than anything.
01:09:29
So, I know if I was doing one, I'd get like 10 hours in, you know. 67K and I'd
01:09:34
probably be like, "Oh, yeah. That's that's good. That's a good knock." Good
01:09:37
knock. Well, that's the thing. That's the thing. It's such a sadistic event
01:09:41
format that like 10 hours in, which is what that's probably about what's that
01:09:46
like 80 60 something KS every 6.7ks. Yes. Yeah. That's a beginning. That's a
01:09:52
beginning. But like because you're in the space of all these animals that are
01:09:55
like trying to go 24 48 in Sam's case, 100 hours, it's like, "Oh, have you only
01:10:00
done that?" But like it's it's a it's a funny it's a funny space, but it forces
01:10:05
you and it promotes the ability in yourself to push yourself to go one more lap. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Well, um
01:10:13
yeah, Backyard Ultra and whatever else the future may bring. Um I'm proud of
01:10:17
you, Stefan, and I can't wait to see what you do next. Yeah. Appreciate it, Dom. Yeah, well done, mate. You did it.
01:10:23
You [ __ ] did it. Yeah, we [ __ ] did it. Legend. Now, thank you for having me. And again, from the onset, you know
01:10:28
what you promoting the platform, you know, like it was intentional maybe or maybe you're just being a good cat like
01:10:35
it helped, you know? So, I thank you for that. What you were able to sort of propel it and your timing was great. You
01:10:42
probably did that strategically, but I'm glad that you did it that I'd done one
01:10:45
link first and that brought the right eyes to then start following. And people at me, I listen to the Dom podcast and
01:10:51
they'll fill me in on their on their sh. Yeah, it was strategic. I wanted to make
01:10:56
sure you're in the second half because um I'm glad I've done a lot of podcasts
01:11:00
with people that say they're going to do extreme things. Um but again, until
01:11:05
until Yeah. And when you get to halfway, it's like, oh, this this guy's the real
01:11:08
deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is such a weird thing to say. I ran one
01:11:12
length of the country and was only halfway. That was a moment for me. It's gone. Anyway, you're a great New
01:11:17
Zealander and it's great to have you back on the podcast. Um I I don't think
01:11:22
I knew this the first time we spoke, but um your your intensity that's um partly
01:11:26
because of your Croatian roots. Yeah, probably. Yeah, I love the intensity. Yeah. Yeah, you're one of a kind. Nice,
01:11:33
man. Good stuff. Legend. Thank you, brother.