Running with the All Blacks a powerful training ground
For All Blacks doctor Tony Page, his love of running began with a chance encounter on a weekend adventure driving around in his parents’ car.
He was 19 and his parents had gone away for the weekend, leaving Page and his siblings at home with the car.
As teenagers, their impulse was to take advantage and drive as much as they could.
‘‘We bumped into the Two Oceans Marathon and I just watched it, enthralled, looking at this mass of people and thought, ‘Oh, I could do that’, and the next thing you’re into it.’’
That encounter was in his homeland of South Africa, long before his move to New Zealand in the 1980s. It took Page on a path that continues today, a journey that has seen him run all around the world.
He eventually raced at Two Oceans, a famous 56km event in South Africa, has taken on New Zealand’s iconic mountain marathon, Kepler, 10 times, and explores cities on early-morning jaunts during All Black tours, since joining as the rugby team’s doctor in 2013.
There are all sorts of runners. Those who do it as a chore to keep healthy, those who do it because it keeps them fit for other sports – and then there are those of us who do it just because we love it.
We’re the ones people call ‘‘those crazy runners’’.
Page is one of those runners. And so am I.
It’s hard to explain how that happens. For me, I got hooked early, running around the block
‘‘Some of your greatest experiences are by surprise when [you’re lost] you’ve got to find your way home through something you didn’t expect.’’ Tony Page
as a kid and realising that it was something I actually enjoyed.
Partly it was freedom, I was a mini explorer discovering my neighbourhood.
As I got older, I realised that running was important to me because of the friendships I forged. I felt like I was in a tribe, that I belonged somewhere.
It helps that I’ve been (and continue to be) lucky to run with some great story-tellers – and hearing good yarns on the trails
is like being fed an elixir, fuelling you through the miles.
Also, there’s something about the conversations you have when you run.
You end up talking about things you don’t normally in everyday life – maybe it’s endorphins, or maybe it’s fatigue that lowers your guard.
Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s a male thing, but I find it hard to be open with people when I’m wearing normal clothes.
But put on running shorts and shoes and I’ll yabber away about life’s trials and tribulations, the highs and the lows (actually, in hindsight, sorry, running mates over the years, for over-sharing.)
But partly my love of running came because I realised it was a way of experiencing the world differently. When you’re getting around somewhere on foot, you see it and smell it and soak it in in a way you don’t when you’re travelling by car or bus or train.
That’s what Tony Page has found too. On the Dirt Church Radio podcast this week he tells us about how a small group of the All Blacks management team run regularly when they’re on tour, taking in the sights of Paris, Rome, and London, sometimes getting lost.
‘‘Some of your greatest experiences are by surprise when you’ve got to find your way home through something you didn’t expect.’’
He and his wife woke early the morning after the 2015 World Cup victory, the excitement of the night before still coursing through them – so they went for a run. ‘‘It’s a great way to unwind and savour the moment.’’
Mostly, the players don’t run, they do their training on the field or in the gym, although, Page says, there has been one exception – former captain Richie McCaw.
‘‘I used to run sometimes with Richie when he was coming back from injury. He would storm up the hills. He is almost rare in that he’s got a big engine.’’
Most All Blacks are more suited to sprinting. ‘‘That’s the characteristic that the game demands. Richie was fortunate to come through without a lot of knee and hip injuries and is a pretty damn good athlete.’’
Whatever gets you into running, you never know what it will bring, or where it will take you.
Eugene Bingham and Matt Rayment are hosts of a trail running podcast Dirt Church Radio. Learn more at dirtchurchradio.com or get in touch via email dirtchurchradio@gmail.com