Alex Thornton, Carla Joel, Kelsey Parker: Trekn Travel members on their performance in GODZONE

Alex Thornton, Carla Joel, Kelsi Parker, and Summer O'Shea make up the 'Trekn Travel', an all female team who took on one of the toughest races in the world, GODZONE.  

Lesley chats with Alex, Carla and Kelsi about their incredible result in the team category of GODZONE.   

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, a very apt song, dream whether I believe you
can get me through the night. Because the full length
God'szone Pure is six hundred and thirteen k's, it's throughout
the high country of the rugged Mulborough Backcountry. Teams are
expected to take between five and eight days to complete
the course. Alex Thornton, Karla Joel, Kelsey Parker and Summer

(00:23):
O'shay were the trek and travel team. They were an
all female team and they finished an equal place. I
caught up with Alex, Carla and Kelsey on the finish
line and they were still buzzing. Well, you have made history.
You fought, although we obviously haven't got your other teammate,
but you've made history, the first full female team to

(00:46):
go the full length of god Zone Hiatt County.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Here, Yes seen a dream in the making.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
We well.

Speaker 4 (00:55):
My first god Zone was Roderoa in twenty twenty one
and I was inspired by Emily and her team who
were I'm pretty.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Sure we're all female in that adventure.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Race and their aim was to go top ten and
roder Row and the field was incredibly high. I think
we were about seventy teams and Pure then. Ever since then,
I've been dreaming of putting together an all women's team.
Carla asked me at work one day if I wanted
to make a team, and I was like, sure, why not?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
And we found another two.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
Really keen wahina and yeah, made it happen. And here
we are now at the at the finish line, and
yes we did finish. Yeah we're finished ranked and the
official ranking I think is eights equal. Pretty stoked to
finish the race less than half the field did this year,

(01:54):
which is pretty normal, pretty experiencing out a race the
full pure course with fore women because most teams have
three men and one and one female. There are a
few teams, especially the wedding team, who had two females
and two males.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
But yeah, it's a.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
Completely different ball game when you don't have any strong
men to carry your carry your big packs and big
pack craft likes and bikes, very very big help.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
It is over six hundred k's, over undulating with high
the ascent going up meters, And then I mean, how
many days and how much sleep did you get?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (02:35):
The sleep was an interesting one. Hi, it's Carla. The
first day you pretty much go full whack. From the
time we started and we didn't sleep until the following night,
so more than.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Twenty four hours, probably because you.

Speaker 5 (02:50):
Just kind of get on a roll and you want
to make the most of daylight when you come through.
After the first stage, when we went into the trekking stage,
tried to sort of get maybe four five hours where
we could, and kind of the evening time we did
our sleep pretty well, and then we were reasonably lucky
that along the way there was some pretty handy and

(03:11):
huts that came at the right time for us, Glazebrook
Cottage on the mountain.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Bike stage where we were lucky.

Speaker 5 (03:19):
To turn up at that just as the rain was
bucketing down and they had a chili bin of cokes
and LMPs and sausage rolls there, and we could go
inside the hut and sort of take a couple of
hours of sleep before we tackled the mountain that we
had to climb with our mountain bike.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
So there were a few spots along the way that
we could.

Speaker 5 (03:39):
Catch a few zs to recharge before we attacked another station,
like another stage. So yeah, but I think the sleep
strategy is kind of key to being able to continue
and keep going at the pace you're going and sort
of the longevity of the race.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Now, the hardest part was that. The hardest part that
mountain bike up the mountain.

Speaker 6 (04:01):
Hi Alex speaking, Yes, that mountain bike was incredibly challenging.
I don't think I've ever had to.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Put my bike on my back and carry it.

Speaker 6 (04:08):
Up such as steep mountain for such a long time.
We were also battling it was quite high winds at
the top, so it was quite challenging to keep the
bike on your back at times. So yeah, that mountain
bike stage was.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, it was definitely very challenging.

Speaker 6 (04:23):
But it was also incredibly rewarding and probably one of
my like peaks but also my well it was probably
one of my pits, but also my peaks because when we.

Speaker 5 (04:31):
Got to the top, we were just.

Speaker 6 (04:33):
So ecstatic to be up there and it was a
mixture of laughter and crying. But and we al sort
of talked about changing hobbies at the top of that
mountain because everything was pretty challenging, but it was Yeah,
it was incredible for the four of us girls to.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Get to the top of that mountain because yeah, it
was nary.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
It's like these girls are playing it down like it's
this first ever adventure race like most people do Spring
Challenge or like nice little six hour or something around
the foothills of hometown.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
First, Like, I grew.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
Up adventure racing when I was a teenager in Fakatani,
and so yeah, I've got a lot of experiences to
draw from there. But these girls just had the right
mentality and we had an incredible sponsor, Colin from Truck
to Travel, who equipped us with the right gear, because
I think a lot of people get into this type

(05:27):
of event and even if they do have the experience,
they just.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Don't have the warm gear or the.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
Right footwear or the right bike or like safe equipment
because it's not like it's a race where you can,
you know, just pop back and pick up something new,
Like we're like fifty kilometers away from civilization, and so yeah,
it's pretty special being able to like encourage women, especially

(05:55):
to set out their comfort zone and do something that's
incredibly challenging that ninety nine percent of the population will.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Never experience in their life.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
So yeah, massive up to the other three girls and
what you can conquer rather than the actual finish line.
So yes.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
So Alex Thornton, Carla Joel Kelsey Parker and Summer O'sha
part of that Trek and Travel all female team. They
finished eighth, equal and six hundred and thirteen k's ticked
off in the toughest of terrain.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
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