The King of Adventure
In 1994 a man was rushed into a Malaysian intensive care ward fighting for his life, consumed by a deadly disease - leptospirosis. Suffering failed lungs, kidneys, and a collapsed circulation system, Steve Gurney - New Zealand's champion of adventure racing - was given almost no chance of survival. But survive he did. Armed with a second shot at life, Steve proceeded to win seven Coast to Coast events - a gruelling day-long multisport race - in a row. Now, forced out of the sport due to injury, he looks back on his career, how he began and what the future holds.
Steve has set the standard in adventure racing in New Zealand over the past 20 years. His record of nine Coast to Coast wins is unheralded and is unlikely to be equalled. The Coast to Coast race is a multi-sport "adventure race" and is the unofficial world championship of the sport. The race begins with a three km run from Kumara Beach on the West Coast of the South Island, followed by a 55 km cycling segment through the Southern Alps. The next segment is a 33 km run up the Deception River, through Goat Pass and then down the Mingha River. A 15 km cycling leg brings competitors to the Waimakariri River and the 67 km kayaking leg of the race. The final segment is a 70 km cycling race into Christchurch, finishing at Sumner Beach on the Pacific Ocean - 243 kilometres, coast to coast. The fastest time anyone has ever completed the race is in 10 hours, 34 minutes.
Steve's official retirement from professional racing earlier this year is the ultimate result of a two-year battle with a chronic ankle injury. Years of running on torn ligaments and cartilage have made it impossible for Steve to train at a level required for race fitness. "I've twice had reconstructive surgery for the ligaments, but they can't fix cartilage in ankles...yet! It hurts to run competitively, and if I did, arthritis would set in faster than it is already," says Steve.
It is this injury that saw Steve thrown into a state of despair and depression in 2005, which ultimately led him to confront his fears and ask himself why racing is so important. "Winning all of those races totally consumed me. I was chasing success with a grim determination. What I didn't realise until now was that I was measuring success with a faulty measure. I thought I was climbing the ladder to lofty heights of success...the ladder turned out to be a giant hamster wheel! It's a major mind shift. It took me quite by surprise how much courage was needed for career change."
This wasn't the first time Steve had faced a major career obstacle. In 1994, while competing in an adventure race in Borneo, he was very nearly killed by a severe case of leptospirosis - an animal-transmitted disease Steve contracted as a result of bat faeces getting into a cut on his leg.
Steve candidly recalls this brush with death - "It was the bat out of hell! But it didn't bite me. I just got bat shit in a cut on my leg while we were squeezing through a claustrophobic cave. The Mulu caves in Borneo are the biggest cave system in the world, and as such there are gazillions of bats. There was bat shit all over the shop. I didn't realise at the time that they were carrying leptospirosis. Little buggers! Ended up in intensive care, kidneys failed, lungs failed, circulation collapsed. Close call that was. They reckoned I'd be a goner, and if by chance I survived, they reckoned I'd be brain damaged!"
Doctors told Steve the outlook was not good. Fans around the world sent him get-well cards. One of these was from a woman on her deathbed and provided a "motivating factor" for Steve, who had only just escaped death himself.
"I was sent a few get well cards. One included a desiderata written by a lady on her deathbed. It was basically a list of things she regretted not doing in her life. It was incredibly motivating to me, since I effectively had a second chance at life. After the next two years spent getting well, I scored seven Coast to Coast wins in a row! Talk about passion!"
It is this passion, which is the first thing one notices in Steve, that drives him to succeed.
I ask; why did he originally get into adventure racing?
"From the perspective and benefit of hindsight, what made me get into adventure racing was an unconscious drive to prove something. I didn't know this at the time, and it's remained an unconscious determination - until this last year when I was forced to retire from racing and ask myself some questions."
Steve says his furious determination can be traced back to early roots in the local Boys Brigade (which is a bit like Scouts.) It was through a "motivated and adventurous" Boys Brigade leader that Steve was involved in tramping, kayaking and biking at an early age and on a weekly basis. It was there that he picked up a taste for adventure, and for the individual sports of cycling, kayaking and mountaineering.
Later, at university, Steve joined the kayaking club and developed a real passion for the sport. It was through his position as gear manager at the kayak club that Steve was first introduced to Robin Judkins - the founder of the Coast to Coast race.
"Robin was hiring some kayaks from me as the club gear officer, for another event, [the Alpine Ironman, a combined skiing, kayaking, biking and running race.] He encouraged me to give it a go that coming weekend. I came 3rd and loved it. I'd already heard about the Coast to Coast and so decided to train for that once I'd finished my degree - the workload was full on for engineering and I'm not a gifted student! I didn't win my first Coast to Coast either, in fact it took five attempts before I won...not athletically gifted either! Just determined."
I find it difficult to believe comments about the nine-time winner of the Coast to Coast not being athletically gifted, and put it down to Steve just being a very humble, modest Kiwi bloke. And as far as not being a gifted student goes, it turns out he is in fact quite a talented mechanical engineer, and for the last ten years has owned and operated 'Gurneygears' - an innovative design company focused on creating new and 'outside the square' products. Steve explains how it got started.
"Gurneygears is a specialist range of multi-sport equipment and clothing sold mostly on www.gurneygears.com. It was born out of the shed full of stuff I'd invented for my own racing use. Multi-sport is a new sport and as such I'd often need to be innovative because the exact equipment I wanted didn't exist, or because I saw an somewhere I could have a competitive edge. After a while I realised there should be a market for this equipment. True, there was, and even international racers demanded some of my stuff. However, it's a very niche market, and not very profitable at all. So I'm closing it down and moving onto a new venture."
This new scheme combines all of what Steve has learned to do well; compete, working in a team to achieve an outcome, and motivational speaking.
"HOTteams Ltd is about modelling what makes champion adventure racing teams [Kiwis, says Steve, are world leaders in this burgeoning field] and bringing this to the business world. Our signature product is a virtual adventure race played in conferences or boardrooms called STAR leaders. It's adventure racing without the blood, mud, sleep deprivation, and leeches crawling up your bum."
Despite Steve's new-found business success, he still regrets not achieving an elusive 10th victory in the Coast to Coast.
He raced the Coast to Coast 19 times, winning nine times between 1990 and 2003 - over a decade of successes. Going for his 10th win in 2004, he finished an agonising second - a placing that still haunts him
"My aim was to get 10, so nine is the ultimate tease. Especially since I'll never be able to get that 10th. It's like the universe wanted to tell me something... 'you can have nine glorious wins, but just to piss you off, you can't have ten!'"
At the time Steve says felt like he had unfinished business. The fact that he would never be able to win a 10th Coast to Coast left him in a state of depression, leading him on a two year quest to "find the meaning of life," as he says.
"What a journey that was! I finally found the answer to the meaning of life and now I don't need to compete anymore. I don't have to be driven by that unconscious need I had to prove something. Freedom!"
For Steve Gurney, freedom and finding the meaning of life would - incongruously - turn out to have a lot to do with dancing. Dancing with the Stars, that is.
Despite his early exit from the televised competition he says still took a lot away from the experience.
"Dancing proved to be a wonderful metaphor of life for me. I initially tried to learn to dance with the left side of my brain, much to Sharan's [Steve's teacher/show partner] chagrin. You know, control and logic. But dancing is about letting go of control and feeling the music, going with the rhythm of life. It taught me balance."
Now that Steve has achieved a balance in life and confronted his demons, he is by no means going to become a couch potato. In fact, it quickly becomes clear that he probably never sits still. A self proclaimed "endorphin junky" Steve still exercises every day, "both body and mind." He is currently writing two books, one a training how-to for the Coast to Coast, the other a collection of stories and "yarns" from his travels at home and abroad. However, don't expect these to hit bookstores anytime soon, as time to write is something in short supply for Steve. He's busier going out on still more adventures, such as the cycling tour he led through Vietnam in late September this year.
"It's the first official road bike tour, Tour de Vietnam. It's not competitive, but we'll have a yellow jersey," he says. "Road biking is emerging as the 'new golf' so I thought I'd organise a winter excursion to a fun, warm location. It's 1111km over 11 days through the central highlands, fully supported. I hate bike training in the cold, wet winter, so this will be a great way to get a running start on summer fitness."
Hold on - summer fitness? I thought he had retired? Perhaps "retirement" for New Zealand's king of adventure racing means cutting back training from an crazy amount to just a "insane to anyone else" amount. After all, he didn't earn the title "that crazy Coast to Coast guy" for nothing.
Steve's career shares parallels with traits and events that are synonymous with some of the greatest athletes of our time. His near-death experience and subsequent second shot at life is only too familiar in the wake of Lance Armstrong's retirement in 2006 - after a career during which he nearly died of cancer, then came back to win seven consecutive Tours de France.
Although Steve had already achieved sporting success (winning two Coast to Coasts) prior to his illness, his resolve to make the most of "his second chance" and live every day as if it's his last is something we can all aspire to in our own lives.
Although his professional career may be over, Intrepid can guarantee this won't be the last you hear of Steve Gurney. Whether it's through his forthcoming literary masterpieces, innovative design or motivational speaking he will remain a charismatic figure on the New Zealand sporting scene. His record of nine Coast to Coast victories will likely never be challenged, and will always be considered one of the greatest sporting feats by a self-described "ordinary kiwi bloke."
"The next time I'm on my deathbed, I want to make sure I have a huge smile of contentment at all the things I've ticked off my list of 'gotta do's," says Steve.
Judging by what he's achieved to date, I think I can see a grin on his face already.
