Elina says there are three adventure races they'll do this year.
"We'll race twice in China, then in Abu Dhabi again, and then Richard is doing some Ironman races."
Ironman is quite different from adventure racing. The crossover is not easy or obvious.
pandora style beadsRichard has already competed in four races over the distance - two in Ironman New Zealand (March 2008 and 2009), then his breakthrough event in Roth, Germany, where he established the fastest time ever by a New Zealander, 10 minutes quicker than multiple Taupo Ironman winner Cameron Brown.
His most recent success - his first win over the distance - was in Wanaka, on January 16 this year, when he set a race record with a convincing performance.
The question remained as to why would he move out of his comfort zone in adventure racing to tackle such a hugely competitive discipline as Ironman racing?
"It's starting to become more lucrative, definitely. There's a little bit more money at the sharp end of the field than in multisport racing. It's definitely equivalent to a quarter share in a big adventure race, maybe a little bit more sometimes, but it definitely seems to have been quite attractive from a sponsorship point of view - it's just that much more international and that much more well known."
Prize money is important to the Ussher family finances, but so, increasingly, is sponsorship.
Richard says the balance of their income from racing and from sponsorship is changing: "It would be very close to 50-50, but until this year we were making pandora beads a lot more money from prize money than what we were from sponsors.
"Subway is our major sponsor and that pretty much covers our expenses in New Zealand. It covers us going to all the races, our food, running our business essentially - so we can pay our mortgage. If we were just to stay in New Zealand that would be fine."
Elina says they still have to win races.
One problem, says Richard, is that a lot of their racing is outside of the country.
"We're really fortunate that we've just picked up Planet X, a UK bike company. They're doing all of our bikes now."
The Usshers are confident they will be able to make a living from sport when their racing days are done.
"There are some good opportunities already," Elina says.
Richard says that through Planet X they are designing a range of clothing and helping with the bike designs: "We can see opportunities starting to expand. There's things built into the contract that are not only money, but shares and things like that."
Athletes vary in terms of longevity in their field, but the longest Richard sees himself racing is probably another four years. "Realistically if a good opportunity came up two years down the track I'd probably be almost ready. I don't think I'd ever walk away from competing completely. I'd probably just target one or two races a year, or just do races socially, but there'll definitely be a time when there's new challenges to be had."
For all the talk about career prospects and building a financial base, there's a sense that both Richard and Elina are true competitors - that no matter what other factors are in play, they want to win. For Richard, the world Ironman title in Kona, Hawaii, is an almost unspoken goal - it's the holy grail
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