DCR Episode 4 - Mel Aitken
Kia Ora Whanau. Joining us for our fourth episode of of Dirt Church Radio we have the most excellent Mel Aitken. Mel is based down on the West Coast of the South Island where she is an Inspector in the New Zealand Police and holds the role of Area Commander. When Mel doesn’t have her hands full with being responsible for 23 thousand odd square kilometres of rugged bush and coast, Mel crushes trail with a blithe aggression that belies her modest and personable nature. We talk to Mel about her responsibilities as a police inspector, her journey from Constable on Auckland’s North Shore to a senior role and what this means to her. We also discuss her multiple recent trail, road, and ultra successes. Mel is the current Oceania Half Marathon Champion, and has recently represented New Zealand at the World Trail Running Championships Castellon, Spain. We’re not even going to talk about Mel winning the Queenstown Marathon, or being her age group champ at the Gold Coast Marathon. We talk to Mel about how she is relatively new to the world of trail running, her goals for the future, a burgeoning love of travel. We discuss what motivates Mel, how pulling on the black jersey is something that she loves, but family is something she loves more, and just how she came from police recruit who was struggling to pass the run component of the entrance exam to being one of Australasia’s fiercest competitors.
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Music: Chances with Wolves
Editing assistance: Kieran Nyum-Bai
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