Primed and ready for Godzone challenge
Teaching and adventure racing have a lot in common. Both are challenging, inspirational, require dedication, tenacity and very hard work.
Three Hukanui Primary School teachers decided to test themselves while working as role models for their students.
A year ago, they made the tough decision to train hard and then apply for the ultimate adventure race Godzone 2017.
They were accepted as a Pursuit Team and are now heading to Queenstown to compete from February 24 to March 5.
Frank Young, Alana Cramond and Hannah Wakefield from Hukanui and Eddy Young have juggled their teaching and work commitments with developing skills in kayaking, orienteering, hiking, biking, swimming, fundraising and building up their endurance from a basic level to one where they aim to complete the arduous Godzone 450km course in under a week.
They have had tremendous support from Waikato businesses including Fastlane Fitness and Trek ‘n’ Travel who have sponsored them. Other groups have also assisted them.
Cramond said the journey has been hard.
‘‘A social life doesn’t exist, we watch what we eat, a sleep-in is sometimes a distant memory and bits of my body are taped up and I’m a bit bruised and battered.’’
A recent 400km training exercise was sea-to-sea, around 400km across the centre of the North Island from Urenui in Taranaki to Napier.
They tested their hiking, cycling and endurance, and finished with a kayak to the shore in Hawke’s Bay.
Exhausted but confident they know they can now tackle Godzone.
Godzone is a continuous race where the teams will be tracked using GPS, they sleep when they can, for as short a time as possible and the pursuit athletes have a support team to assist with their gear changes at key transitions.
Richie McCaw was one of the high-profile participants in 2016.
The Hukanui students and TeamTeach’s Waikato supporters will be able to follow them on the public Facebook pages and watch their progress.
The course is still under wraps and TeamTeach will not know what they have let themselves in for until the day before the race, when they are briefed in Queenstown.