Riding for rugby

  • Current and ex-Warriors participate in 30-hour static bike ride.
  • Participants have raised thousands of pounds for Rugby League Cares and MND Association.
  • Women’s Paige Costello, Head of Youth Mick Cassidy and former hooker Wayne Godwin were all involved.

Former Wigan Warrior Wayne ‘Waggataurus’ Godwin, current Head of Youth Mick Cassidy and Women’s player Paige Costello were all on board as they embarked on a 30-hour static virtual bike ride to raise money for Rugby League Cares and MND Association at the weekend.

The team set out on their challenge at 6am on Saturday 30th May, cycling continuously until 12:30pm on Sunday 21st May – a new World Record for the longest static team ride, with the previous record set at 28 hours.

Speaking on the challenge and her involvement, Costello said: “I got involved in this challenge as I have been supporting Rugby League Cares throughout lockdown and thought it would be good to support the team.

“The charity supports mental health – I think with being injured and having knock-backs, I can relate to the struggles that we can encounter and I wanted to see how far I could push myself.

“I didn’t train for the event as it was a very last minute decision. I knew it would be hard, but I didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be. I felt like I was floating by the end of the 30-hours!”

She added: “My lungs felt fine in terms of the event, my knees and bum were killing though from five hours in! I went to some dark places during the challenge, and to be honest I didn’t know if I was going to make it to the end, but the support has been absolutely unreal and that definitely got me through it, massively.

“I have raised approximately £1,300 in one week, and that is still slowly growing as the justgiving page is still open. I’m really shocked – people that I haven’t seen for ages have called and sponsored me. I’m glad that myself and the rest of the riding team could raise awareness by completing this challenge and support both charities with the money we have raised.”

On her thoughts throughout the challenge, Costello said: “I’m not a cyclist, I train hard and often but not so continuous, so I could feel my quads in the first two hours, then my bum started to go numb after five hours. I had a checklist for each hour to help break it down a little bit and to keep my mind focussed.

“The hardest part was around 12 hours in: I hadn’t eaten or drank enough so I felt ill – that’s when I doubted my ability to complete the challenge, but I had to keep going.

“The stretch overnight was tough – my partner stayed up with me for a bit but it was quite a lonely period. Before I knew it, it was early morning again, and the stretch from 5am to 8am were some of the worst – my body ached unbelievably and felt like it was shutting down. The final hour though was such an elation – the Wigan girls called me and we chatted the last hour away and did a countdown at the end. I’m just so happy that we completed it.”

Costello summarised: “Set-backs in rugby league have knocked my confidence a lot over the years, but now I know that personally if I want to go and achieve something, I will – mind over matter. Now it’s time to look ahead to my next goal, which is to climb Kilimanjaro!”

If you would like to donate to the cause, Costello’s justgiving page is still open for donations here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/paige-costello1

Monday 01 June 2020