SIDELINE WITH GEORGE BERRY But perhaps one of his biggest challenges was to go from being a leader, something he’d done for more than a decade as the All Blacks’ captain, to being just one of the team, even being coached along the way. At one stage after trekking through the night in thick, dense fog across Red Hill, McCaw and his CureKids team appeared from the bush, a long, long way from where they thought they were. Where they were was about five hundred metres from a transition where food, dry clothes and a rest were ready to greet them. Instead they’d missed a compulsory marker point, meaning they had to turn back, navigate to that marker point taking them two and a half hours to trek up to just to turn around and trek all the way back to where they were. A mistake that no doubt tested every ounce of his resilience.
McCaw goes to a whole new level The uncertainty, almost a quiver, in Richie McCaw’s voice a couple of days out from the start of this year’s GODZone adventure race proved just how nervous the former All Black captain really was. I’d interviewed him countless times over the years at both the All Blacks and the Crusaders but I’d never heard the usually assertive and confident guy speak in this way. “I don’t want to disgrace myself,” he nervously muttered to me in a pre-race interview. What made his first foray into adventure racing even harder was that there was absolutely no hiding. Media from all over the country and the public both had high expectations. This was also not a case of him being able to dip his toe in and see if he liked it. Chapter 5 of the GODZone adventure race, in the Tasman region, was a 530 kilometre all-out assault. For many, your first race is described as a ‘suffer fest’, where people are not only challenged physically, but mentally as well, to the point of dipping in and out of a depressive state due to the toughness of the challenge and the simple lack of sleep. His years of conditioning for rugby came in handy, and it was obvious that despite having never run more than about 15 kilometres in one sitting the 35-year old clearly had the physical attributes to conquer the over 130km in trekking and running, along with mountain biking and kayaking, both at sea and on the river.
The World Belongs to the Dissatisfied
By this stage the eventual winner, Team Yealands, was zeroing in on the finish line, whilst McCaw and crew were perhaps only a third of the way through. For me, though, what made McCaw’s involvement in the race so remarkable was the interest he attracted to the race. And also his reaction to the hundreds, perhaps even thousands of supporters who came out to see him, and check out the minnow sport in the process. People drove from all over to catch a glimpse and on all types of roads in the boondocks of the Nelson region people lined up to cheer them on. Kids in their dressing gowns at all hours of the night stood at the end of their driveways to offer food, drink and support. And although clearly exhausted, sunburnt and covered in dirt and dust, McCaw in turn paused to sign autographs and pose for photos for kids of all ages. While those people waited for the most-capped rugby player of all time to race past, the competitors in other teams received a momentary boost by also revelling in the sports’ new-found support. McCaw’s team paddled back across the finish line on Kaiteriteri beach and were treated to a hero’s welcome, just over five days after he and his team left the very same spot. He crossed the line, arms linked with his team before being mobbed by media and the adoring public, again clearly exhausted, dirty and craving a feed and some sleep, but stopped to sign autographs and pose for photos just as he had before the race had started. He never left the finish line until all of those that wanted a memento had wandered off proving he had not only not disgraced himself, he’d in fact elevated himself to a whole PN new level. (GEORGE BERRY) F
DEADLINE - 20TH OF THE MONTH
PONSONBY NEWS+ May 2016
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