Day 5 was one of the best for Team Merrell in the GODZone, featuring a 38km hike across the Glynn Wye Range to the Hurunui River.
We’re proud to report that the hiking section was finished really quickly by our Alphas, and saw them jumping up the leaderboard to 18th position out of the 41 teams that started the race.
Coming off the mountains, the team are now faced with the 101km kayak down the Hurunui River, where they have to negotiate Grade 3 rapids on route to TA8. Tobias and Ben have paired up, while Graham sits in with Sabrina – they’re expected to be done with this section in around 24 hours, and then it’s onto the home stretch!
Original article and photos by Julian Apse are on the Merrell Blog.
And more on Tweet’s teammate, Catalina, who dropped out on day 1.
t the weekend, we reported that the youngest member of Team Merrell’s GODZone Alphas, Catalina Gerstle, had to pull out of the race with a knee injury.
We caught up with Catalina in New Zealand to get her thoughts on the race, her recovery, and her plans for the future.
Hello Catalina, sorry to hear your race ended prematurely. Can you tell us a bit about your injury?
We were biking downhill around 5am, and I did a fast turn and my gears jammed causing me to fall off the bike. The clips didn’t release, and I twisted my knee when I hit the floor. I’ve torn the ligament in the knee.
I had a similar injury in my other knee before, so now I have two knees to look after!
How long was it before you realized you couldn’t continue?
I managed to finish the mountain bike section which was an additional three hours, and then I felt the pain as I was dismounting the bike. I wanted to push on though the pain and keep going, because I didn’t want to let my team mates down as they were giving it their all. I was pitting mental strength against physical pain!
We started the 53km hike and I managed to keep going for around an hour, but when we got tot he river and the terrain changed, the pain was too much and I felt I was slowing the team down. I headed back to the previous checkpoint, but by the point I couldn’t raise my leg to walk!
Were you enjoying the race before you had to drop out?
I was really enjoying it, and even though it was incredibly hard, we had a tough trek and came out the other side. Everything was new to me, but we were really starting to gel together as a team – we were becoming aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, which was interesting to see. And of course, being here in New Zealand is a dream!
My team mates’ support was fantastic, and we were working well at supporting each other. But this is the kind of race where you have to be honest and mental strength can’t always triumph over physical pain.
What do you most regret about missing out on?
Not finishing the race is really upsetting. Not completing an objective is frustrating, and I hate having to have left the team.
Have you been bitten by the adventure race bug? Will you be back?
I would love to do more of these endurance races. This is the first adventure race that I’ve entered, and I want to come back and finish it another time.
Before the race begun, I thought that the way to become stronger was to push yourself to your physical limits, but being brave and having the courage to pull out is even harder.
Read the original article on the Merrell blog and see photos by Julian Apse.