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

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

May 27, 2026 · 1h 49m

About this episode

Molly Spark shares her experiences in adventure racing and the challenges she faces, including near-death moments and the importance of discomfort.

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…

People in this episode

Host: Dom Harvey

Guest: Molly Spark

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Canterbury

More episodes of The Dom Harvey Podcast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Dom Harvey Podcast podcast page.