An article for local newspaper:
Last
month local man Milan Brodina competed in the Godzone 520km non-stop expedition
race. He spent five days as part of a
four man team (Jim Cotter, Sia Svedsen, Petr Sykora) kayaking, trekking,
mountain biking, white water rafting and mountaineering across untracked
country from Mount Cook village to Queenstown.
Their Team PAKn’SAVE finished
in 7th place out of 35.
Although
delighted with the result Milan was frustrated to have lost two places over a
“silly mistake.” The team was 45 minutes
into the trekking stage when they realised one member (not Milan!) was not
wearing his racing bib which would have meant disqualification. They had to retrace their steps to retrieve
the bib. Unfortunately this delay meant
they arrived 20 minutes too late to be allowed to start the kayaking stage as
it was getting dark and for safety reasons teams were not allowed to kayak at
night on this grade 2 river. They had to
wait agonising hours before being allowed to start kayaking. “This was the biggest disappointment of the race, knowing we could have finished better than we did.”
Milan has previously only entered day long multi sport races as an individual competitor and says, “This race has long been on my bucket list; this was definitely the big one!”
One
of the highlights was being allowed access into stunningly beautiful land that
is privately owned. Milan also found he
particularly enjoyed racing as part of a team.
“You create friends for life and lifetime memories no one can take
away.”There is a seven day limit to completing the race so Milan explains if teams want to be competitive they have to sleep as little as possible. “Sometimes when you are all exhausted and you have sore feet you just want to give up and go home. People say you go through a lifetime of emotions.”
After two days non-stop competing Milan and his team snatched 2 hours sleep. “We set three watches so we did not sleep in.”
The
final unexpected challenge for the team was to complete a canyon swing near
Queenstown. “It was a fun finish.”
With
all the necessary logistical and safety back up provided by the race organisers
it is a pretty expensive race to enter. “There is always a helicopter around in case you get injured and we carried GPS devices with us because we were in the wilderness.”
Milan
is extremely grateful to PAK n’ SAVE
who provided the major sponsorship. He also appreciates local businesses, KUMHO
TYRES and THE CYCLERY from Timaru, who supported him. Milan trained all year round in preparation for this race. Training included regular sessions of a bike ride to Peel Forest, then run up Little or Big Mt. Peel and finaly biking back to Geraldine. He also went kayaking Rangitata and Rakaia rivers. Milan trained in snow and rain in order to get mentally tough as well.
It took Milan a month to recover from the race and get rid of the blisters on his feet. However, this has not deterred him and he is already organising a team to enter the competition next year.
“I
am trying to get sponsors and I hope local businesses will again be able to
help me.”
Milan
was born in the Czech Republic but worked in America for several years. Ten years ago he was offered a job with
Natural Log Homes in Geraldine and took the decision to immigrate to New
Zealand. “My partner, Lucie, and I were
looking for a change and we have never looked back.” 
