8 minute read
TRACKED
The two type 1 stars of TV Three’s reality show, Regan Pearce and Emily Wilson, take us through what it was like being pursued by an elite team of highly trained trackers.
Photos courtesy Warner Bros. Discovery New Zealand
When Emily Wilson isn’t racing with a pack on her back, trying to avoid being caught by four masked trackers, a dog, and a drone, she can be found coaching women, leading youth, or working for the Department of Conservation. We catch up with her a day before she’s due to head to work in Dusky Sound, Fiordland, to ID bottle-nosed dolphins and set up cameras in the aim of pinpointing why some rats have suddenly been found in that area.
And when Regan Pearce (Ngāti Tuwharetoa) isn’t running, kayaking, and cycling from one coast to the other, he has been known to be an account manager in Queenstown. However, he quit his job to take part in Tracked, and now he says he’s living his boyhood dream of driving big trucks and diggers. He now works for B&A Digging, preparing the land for house pads to be then built on. In Queenstown that means he’s very busy.
Tracked was filmed in the winter of 2022, in some of the most beautiful parts of Aotearoa New Zealand, and for almost a whole year both Regan and Emily had to keep quiet and not tell anyone whether they won or not.
The show wasn’t about diabetes. It was about winning $100,000 in a competition. But at the same time, we’re two people with diabetes, out there, doing it. – REGAN PEARCE
TEAM RED / TEAM GREY
Emily and Regan, both type 1 athletes, were in separate teams, competing with 12 other super fit contestants, half of them international. Three-time Coast to Coast winner in three different categories, Regan joined with his best mate, Regan Pomare to form Team Red. Referred to in the show as ‘the Regans’, the pair was nicknamed ‘Charisma and the Compass’ behind the scenes, as Regan Pomare had served in the NZ Defence Force and knew a thing or two about navigation.
Emily joined with her business and long-time racing partner, Simone Maier, to form Team Grey. The two were slipped in at the third episode to stir things up after the other teams had started to relax. Elite sportswomen, between them they have won the Coast to Coast, GODZown Adventure Race, and a host of other adventure sport titles. In the show, Regan Pomare refers to them as ‘the All Blacks of multisport’.
Emily says that Tracked was different to ‘comparatively normal’ adventure racing, in that it wasn’t simply a matter of getting from A to B. ‘You’re whittled down, and there’s fewer and fewer of you there each week. And the rules kept changing, and the parameters changed too.’
As well as having an increasing number of trackers armed with a drone after them, the contestants needed to find control boxes which contained cards which would either be an advantage for their team or a hindrance to their opponents. Teams could choose to use a ‘snitch’ card, amongst others, which would show their opponents’ exact location to the trackers. When the Regans chose to use theirs on Emily and Simone, viewers at home got to hear many bleeps over the course of the show.
‘For a stress cadet who over analyses, you can see that we had a lot of fun along the way. It was definitely a barrel of laughs.’
‘BRINGING DIABETES ALONG FOR THE RIDE’
Emily says it was good to have Simone there, as she is analytic. The pair already knew each other well, having worked and raced together for years. ‘She knows what to look out for when things are sliding, blood glucose-wise. “Hey Emily, you’re getting even weirder than you usually are.” She gives me good little reminders to eat more often. Because when you’re really focused on things, it can be quite easy to let it slide a little bit, when usually I am quite vigilant.’
The experience was just as exciting and challenging for Regan as well. Each team had a camera operator with them, capturing almost every step they took, as well as their joys and frustrations. Scaling a waterfall on the narrowest of rope ladders and walking over the Tasman glacier roped to a teammate were hard enough, but it was a blister on his heel that nearly ended Regan. ‘It caused so much mental pain and that’s what threw me – something so little causing so much pain.’
He nearly pulled out of the competition but instead ended up cutting a hole into the back of his boot. That gave him a second wind and it was filmed, but the show omitted it, so to viewers at home it just looked like Regan suddenly stopped feeling pain, stood up and continued on, full of beans.
For a stress cadet who over analyses, you can see that we had a lot of fun along the way. It was definitely a barrel of laughs. – EMILY WILSON
DIABETES AMBASSADOR
Regan says he was asked by the show’s production company if he wanted them to showcase his diabetes. He agreed, keen to be an ambassador for diabetes. ‘I wanted to show people, don’t let anything stand in the way of achieving your goals and dreams. And if I can show people that I’m out there, doing this incredible competition, living with type 1, then yeah, go for gold.’
In the first two episodes, Regan explained that he was type 1 and had been since he was 10, as Vinnie Jones, the narrator, growls, ‘Regan’s blood sugar levels need constant checks. Failure to manage it correctly in this extreme environment will lead to fatal consequences.’
In the second episode, we hear about how supportive Regan Pomare is of his teammate and namesake. ‘One thing for me, with Regs, is definitely keeping on top of his condition. It’s worrying, but at the same time I know he’s all over it.’ The cameras captured Regan testing his blood sugar. However, diabetes wasn’t mentioned when Emily joined the competition in episode three, which she says was an opportunity missed. ‘It was sad that it wasn’t deemed important enough. Maybe they wanted to portray us as “on the ball”. If I fell unconscious, I’m sure they would have had the camera right on us. But a shame not to see even an example of someone doing well with diabetes. It would’ve been nice to know you might have a positive influence on others.’
At the start of the show, Emily and Regan didn't know how often they would be able to test their blood sugar or even eat. They both wore CGMs for the duration of the show, and Regan called it his ‘biggest asset’, saying without it he knew he wouldn’t have been able to achieve what he was able to. ‘The quickness and simplicity of having it in my arm, to test quickly, to know, to respond and act on it was brilliant.’
Regan was relatively new to a CGM, only beginning to use it in the time leading up to being on Tracked. Like many, it is the expense that keeps him from using it regularly. ‘The CGM tells you so much and offers so much. The fact that you have to pay an astronomical amount of money for it is just wrong. Extremely frustrating, when it offers so much reassurance.’
TIPS
Regan had been training for the 2022 Coast to Coast when he found out it was being cancelled due to New Zealand moving into the red traffic light setting. Disappointment was quickly replaced with elation when he discovered he and his mate Regan had got through the application process and were going to be in the show.
Being regular competitors with and against each other, Regan was already friends with Emily, but he wanted to catch up with her before the show started to ask for tips on adventure racing with type 1.
The main tips he took away were:
• Don’t wait to test your blood sugar. Testing regularly will avoid you getting to a state where you have to stop and act.
• Get things done when you need to do them. If you have an enforced stop, then use that time to refuel and recover. If you don’t, then you’ll have to stop later and you will lose time.
With a camera operator also being type 1, diabetes was well represented on Tracked.
Watch Tracked on www.threenow.co.nz/shows/tracked/S4684-103
