Images: Courtesy Richard Wright and first age-grouper, which earned him a coveted slot for the Ironman World Champs in Kona, Hawaii. However, Kirsten had fallen pregnant with their second daughter and Richard decided not to go. He skipped 2009 due to glandular fever, then raced again in 2010 and finished 27 th overall to once again qualify for Kona, but by then his divorce was going through, followed by Kirsten moving back to Joburg with the girls. That put paid to thoughts of triathlon as he moved back to Joburg to be close to his daughters, taking up the position of National Training Manager for Pam Golding.
Chasing the Dream
In 2012 he raced Ironman slowly while guiding his COO, Andrew Golding, through his first full Ironman, and they raced together again in 2014, until the second lap of the run.“ That’ s when I turned to Andrew and said I don’ t think you need me any more, and he said funnily enough, I was just thinking the same thing. Then he said, I think you should race it again, because you have unfinished business in Kona, and he asked me what it would cost him to send me to Kona if I could get a slot. It was a massive gesture by an incredible human being.”
However, Richard’ s Kona dream was then dealt a massive blow. While he and Kirsten had struggled to fall pregnant the first time, they had both undergone testing in 2006, and he had been diagnosed with very high Prolactin levels, a warning sign that something may be wrong with the pituitary gland.“ The neurosurgeon then found a small lump on my pituitary and started me on medication, and it appeared the tumour responded, so surgery was not required. However, I periodically still got piercing headaches and suffered from fatigue, which I would then take medication for, until October 2015, when the medication no longer seemed to help. Suddenly I couldn’ t train in the heat or handle sun, I became really emotional, and it felt like I was falling apart.”
A week before Ironman 2016, Richard’ s blood tests showed cancer markers, and the neurosurgeon said he should rather not race, but Richard says,“ I told him I know how to do it slowly, which I did, under the careful supervision of Conrad, and I was pretty chuffed with my 11:30 finishing time, although I still don’ t quite know how I did it.”
Emotional Rollercoaster
Just five days after that, Richard was undergoing a spinal tap test, and that resulted in him being booked in for immediate brain surgery. The doctors had found that the tumour had grown and was squashing the pituitary gland against the brain, causing the headaches and hormonal imbalance, and had turned cancerous, so they had to go in through his nose to remove the tumour. However, two weeks later a scan showed another spot on the pituitary gland and one on the underside of the brain, and that was
Sheer will to finish, sheer will to live
when the doctors gave Richard just six months, which meant he would make it roughly till the middle of December.
“ Nothing can prepare you for that, and I fell apart, but then I got really angry, and decided this was not my destiny, that my girls are my reason for living, and that I was going to fight it. I went ballistic on trying literally everything I could find to help my recovery, and in August the scans were clear, so I went back to working full-time as well as training for Ironman. I had unbelievable support from family and friends, as well as my company, but then I had to overcome the terror of being held up by gunmen in my house and cleared out of everything I owned – and I had cancelled my household insurance when I thought I had just six months left! But friends and people were so supportive, and I was signed up by Fluid Lines as a brand ambassador and given new kit.”
Training was going well when another curve-ball arrived in January – the cancer had mutated and was back, and Richard says he fell apart again.“ I thought I had survived it, and was feeling better, only to be told it was back. So I started a new six-month chemo treatment – five days on, 23 days off – which I am still busy with. I also decided that I was still going to do Ironman, so I got the doctors to structure it so that the race would fall on the 28 th day of the chemo cycle, the best possible day for me to race. I don’ t think people realise how important Ironman is to me – because I know that if I can do Ironman, I can beat cancer. The doctors said I was the most unlikely person they could think of to get this rare type of cancer, but also said if there is one person likely to survive it, is also me. The last time we spoke they gave me three more years, but I am determined that’ s not going to happen. I believe that’ s not my destiny.”
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