Alana & Mel



Can Adelaide sisters Mel and Alana put their differences aside to run a successful race together?

When Mel ran away from home at the age of 15, she effectively ended her relationship with younger sister Alana. It’s only been in recent years that the family has started to heal, so Alana decided to fast-track re-connecting with her big sister by applying to come on the race. “I knew Mel would be into it and it was my idea to enter so that we could share something incredible and start forming a proper adult sister relationship,” says Alana. Mel says, “I’ve always been the rebel and Alana’s always been the nerd. And nothing’s changed as we’ve gotten older.” Alana, 25, has been married to her childhood sweetheart David for three years and works in finance administration. She loves antiques and restoration work on her house. “I’m a home body and love to read books and learn, and Mel’s very anti that.” Mel, 28, loves being the centre of attention. Her interests extend to music, movies and sport. She admits her younger sibling “brings out the worst in me”. Alana adds: “Even when we were little she’d say, ‘Alana you’re my sister and I have to love you but I don’t have to like you.’” As a practice run, the sisters recently took their first holiday together since they were young kids - and it almost ended in disaster. “We went to Hawaii and Mel was over it and ready to kill me by the end. And we weren’t even staying in the same room,” says Alana. Alana and Mel would both love to travel to Latvia, which is the birthplace of their late grandmother. Alana uses her Latvian heritage to explain her pale skin, but Mel interjects, “No you’re white because you’re Albino and that’s a different country.” Alana is bemused that her sister thinks albino is a country. “I gave her a map of the world and she said, ‘That’s not it, Alana, that’s not the entire world. Where is the rest of it?” So it seems wise that as a team they’ve decided to defer anything physical to Mel and “anything that we know is going to be smart or nerdy is definitely going to be Alana,” says Mel.