His path to Japan started by entering the Revenant Ultra Adventure Run on Welcome Rock Station, near Garston in Southland, in January this year.
"It’s New Zealand’s toughest race — an ultra-marathon for individuals. It’s a cool wee event, a 200km race with a lot of navigation."
No-one finished the race, but he was the last man standing, getting the furthest across the course, about 150km.
He could have gone further but he was minutes outside the time allowed for reaching a checkpoint.
"I just happened to be the last guy going on the course and I didn’t think too much about it, because I didn’t finish."
A Japanese film crew was filming the race.
"They made a TV show and made me the main character and made me look better than I am," he said, laughing.
In April, a film crew member invited him on an all-expenses-paid trip for a month to compete in a two-day, 100-mile (160km) race in Japan, the Tamba 100.
"It’s one of the hardest 100 miles in the world. It’s got 1600m of vertical elevation."
He accepted the invitation and arrived in Tamba on June 1.
"For three days before the race, I was on the front page of the paper, I was on Japanese radio, I was seeded No1 over Japan’s best ultra runner and I’m just a kid who’s just finished a footy season, who is not training as much as anyone else and I’m wearing the No1 bib. They hyped me up like nothing else."
He felt the pressure to perform to the level of hype but was "living the dream" before the race.
"I got to eat, sleep and train most days. That was something else, because normally I’d have to work and I got fitter than I’ve ever been. It was so fun."
In the field of 70, he finished 10th.
"I should have done better but I was racing on a lot of Japanese food and it didn’t work too well."
Food he ate in Japan included the testicles of a puffer fish, which was considered a delicacy.
"They were big, too, and if the wrong guy cooks it, it can put you out [kill you], so that was pretty cool."
The race finished four days after he arrived in Japan and he spent the rest of the time as a tourist.
"I ... did everything touristy, ate expensive authentic food and they wouldn’t let me pay a cent. It was pretty unreal."
Highlights included visiting a samurai castle, climbing Mt Fuji and taking a bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo.
"The trip was an eye-opener to what my next few years of being an athlete could be like, if I keep going hard and focus on training, then shoot, if I can get a few more free trips like that, it will all be worth it."
His family run a sheep and beef farm near Wyndham, but this winter he took on a shepherding job at Mt Prospect Station in Te Anau, so he was closer to terrain for training.
He was registered in a team to compete in the more than 700km Adventure Racing World Championships in South Africa in October.
