Iinternational teams, each with four competitors converge on the South Island of New Zealand in October, 2001. The teams traversed 500 kilometers of breathtaking terrain that tested the skill and endurance of even the best adventure athletes in the world.
TEKAPO MILITARY CAMP, New Zealand - With the report of a starter's pistol and a flourish from two signal banners, competitors in the eighth Eco-Challenge race trotted on foot and horseback Sunday toward the mist-shrouded Ben Oahu Mountains, beginning another odyssey of hardship and achievement.
Race Director Mark Burnett fired the starting gun at 7:38 a.m. after the 67 teams lined up across a front about 400 yards wide. Two members of each four-person team were mounted on horses. The other two were afoot.
With their trekking poles poking from their backpacks like spears, and the large flags of competing nations waving behind them, they looked like a medieval army massing for the charge.
They set off at a slow trot--for horses--toward the mountains. After less than five miles (seven kilometers), the equestrians and foot racers split up, those afoot heading into the mountains and the riders heading down a valley, to the point where the teams had to link up again.
Five to 12 days of grueling competition ahead lay the finish line.
Midway through the first day, five teams were clustered in the lead, within 22 minutes of each other. The host nation's Team PureNZ.com was in first place, followed by Team Earthlink, Team Salomon/Eco-Internet, both of the United States, and New Zealand's Team Gisborne First Light, all 19 minutes back. One minute behind them came Team Red Bull Playstation AXN of Spain.
Some of the racers were preoccupied by riding the unfamiliar horses, which one of the New Zealand wranglers described as an eclectic mix of "plain old cow ponies, real quarter horses, show jumpers and hunters, and trekking horses," usually used for carrying campers into the mountains.
Some had cause to be. Lynne Stark, of Ireland's Team Bridgedale/Teampeak.com, said she was thrown and kicked by her horse shortly after the start, but remounted and forged on. The incident cost the team 20 minutes, however, and they straggled into the first passport control point toward the rear of the competitors.
Brian Strange of Los Angeles, captain of Team Strange and Carpenter, was also thrown and his horse then ran off, leaving the team to continue with only one horse, in last place.
The competitors were surprised several miles into the course when Burnett required them to switch off, the equestrians dismounting and the runners taking the horses, to the dismay of some who felt they were better runners than riders.
But the major concern of many on the starting line was the cold, drizzly weather.
"I've never run with so much clothing on and carrying so much gear," said Patty Lee of Team AXN Hong Kong. "It's too hot in Hong Kong ever to train in these sorts of outfits. I'm rather concerned about this."
"In Patagonia, (the race site two years ago), there were dramatic changes in the weather between hot and cold," said Masayuki Takahata of Team AXN East Wind from Japan. "Here it is always cold."
"We know it will be very cold and misty in the mountains," said Jerome Luengo of Team AXN Philippines. "But we expected this problem and we've been here training for a month. We're adjusting to it."
After the cold and cloudy start, however, the sun burned through the clouds and the rest of the day was sunny and mild. Burnett earlier warned the racers to beware of extreme cold in the mountains and counseled them not to camp overnight at high altitudes. The organizers of the race, which usually continues day and night without respite until teams reach the finish line, require competitors to carry sleeping bags and other cold weather gear.
There were emotional farewells at the starting line. Shortly before the starting gun, Dave Christian of Team GO shared a goodbye smooch with girlfriend Jessica Beeman over the wire fence separating spectators and competitors.
She has no worries about Christian, a former paratrooper who competed in last year's Eco-Challenge in Borneo, Beeman said. "He'll take care of himself."
A familiar face on the start line was Sarah Odell of Britain's Team 9feet.com, one of four persons who have competed in every Eco-Challenge since the first one in 1995, almost always finishing among the top teams. She was on the team that won last year's Raid Gauloises.
At 34, has Sarah, a London model and TV personality, ever considered hanging up her hiking boots?
"I'm becoming aware of what it's doing to my body-my knees are beginning to creak," Odell said.
"But the adrenalin is quite addicting, and I know women in my country who are 38 or 40 and still in fantastic shape, so I have no plans yet on giving it up."
