‘Richie McCaw Nearly Killed Me’: Molly Spark - 22-Year-Old Adventure Racing Phenom

Molly Spark is a 22 year old from Canterbury, and she spends her spare time doing things that sound like a PTSD inducing nightmare for most of us: 

Her sport is multi-day expedition races through mountains, rivers, forests and bush. 

You may have heard of the iconic event called Godzone- it got a bit of mainstream coverage after Richie McCaw took part a few years ago- that’s an expedition race.

1000km in a week. Sleep deprivation. Hallucinations. Limited food. Carrying everything you need in a backpack. Navigating with a map and compass. And the wild part? She LIVES for this stuff. She is built different.

This podcast is a small part of the Molly Spark story. 

We talk about resilience, fear, suffering, hallucinations, sleep deprivation, near-death moments, and why she genuinely believes discomfort is one of the best things a person can experience. There is also a great story about how Richie McCaw almost killed her.

This is one of my favourite podcasts so far- partly because the sport of expedition racing itself is so wild, but mostly because Molly is such a firecracker. She just oozes positivity and joy.

This chat definitely didn’t make me want to become an expedition racer….but it did make me wish Molly was my friend.

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