Archive through October 17, 2002
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TV ClubHouse: Archive: Eco-Challenge (Going on now - Ethan and Jenna & others participating): Archive through October 17, 2002

Ryn

Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 05:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Yankee - being as Montrail is up front I think we would find it interesting :)

I just realized the Earthlink explination - they are still (or were) IN at CP 8 - dunno if that means they have been at the same CP for 5 hours or what......

Ryn

Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 06:37 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Ty again for the other link Yankee - I found a scrap of info there, from the Day 4 summary, "There is plenty of action at the back of the race too. Any teams hoping to continue must clear the kayak checkpoint 5 by 1 p.m. Wednesday, or face being disqualified."

I checked and Mad River cleared that CP with roughly 24 hours to spare (6:40 pm Tuesday) so, for now it looks like they do not have to fear being DQ'd for not getting to a CP.

(and the text ranking page is working as well)

Yankee_In_Ca

Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 07:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Also, here's updates from another site, updated by my good buddy, U.K. journalist Rob Howard. He's focusing on the British teams mostly, but his latest 2-page update (listed at the top) really summarizes today's action.

Link to Article

Yankee_In_Ca

Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 07:04 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Per Rob Howard's reporting, it looks like Hayden C's team was possibly DQ'd because they asked for a rescue when it wasn't an emergency situation. Looks like it was dehydration -- which is serious, but not necessarily 'emergency' enough to get a rescue. Normally a team would get themselves to a point (CP or wherever) where they could then pull themselves out).

Rissa

Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 08:40 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
What the? I checked the updates and was shocked to see that another Cdn. team was listed as unranked (they had been about 15th). I spent a few minutes trying to find out what happened and when I went back to the rankings, Schick Extreme is OUT!! We are dropping like flies. RFLOL Only one team left in this thing... Suburu Canada in 15th position. Schick extreme was closing in on the top ten, so I am quite upset right now :)

I checked the Schick guestbook and someone is saying they hope Dave's hand is alright, so there must be a better source for updated info that we just haven't found yet.

Rissa

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 06:35 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Mornin' campers, update time:

First 5 continues to shift as we enter probably the last 2-3 days for these lead teams. As of roughly 1am local time, they were:
1)Buff AXN (Spain)
2)GoLite (USA)
3) Seagate (Australia)
4)Air Pacific (Australia)
5)Mazda (South Africa)

Buff is through cp12, Golite and Seagate through cp11 and the other two cp 10.

Canada's one remaining team is still holding strong in 14th which they have pretty much maintained right from the beginning.

There are now 31 DSQ and unranked teams, leaving 50 in the race. I would assume the rate of injuries and illness would increase as the racers tire, so it will be mighty interesting to see just how many teams will actually complete the course. At this rate, it will be less than half.

The link that Yankee gave above is a great one btw. Has a short summary for each day's action and even though it's short of detail, they seem to get their info. up even before the official exo site does.

Ryn

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 07:21 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Lets seeeee

So for those of us watching for the Survivor folks

Jenna and Ethan are still in it - bringing up the rear ranked 50. They have really moved up from the high 70's they started at, oh wait, the other 20 dropped out ;) lol

Seriously, they are doing great considering how many teams have fallen by the waside and I can see Mark B. spending a lot of time showing them on the TV show since they are 'celebrities' and still in it.

The only other 'celebrities' I know still in it would be the playboy team and they are 48th.

The map stops at CP 11 and I thought they would update it when the teams passed it, but nothing yet.

Rissa

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 09:04 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Ryn, LOL

I read something somewhere about one of the American teams saying that their strategy was to stay in between the playboy team and the girls from Brazil. {G} Wonder how that is working out for them. LOL

Seems the 2nd half of this race is going to be much easier and faster then the first half. Updates are more often now. As of 3:17 am local time we have a 2nd American team reclaiming their top five ranking:

1) Buff AXN (Spain) through cp12
2) Seagate (Australia) through cp11
3) GoLite (USA) through cp11
4) Montrail (USA) through cp11
5)Air Pacific (Australia) through cp11

South Africa has dropped to 6th. Buff seems to have a good sized lead but the next five are fairly close.

Subura Canada holding steady at 14th. Mad River still last but their time is still being reported as I saw it YESTERDAY, so perhaps cp6 is still having communication problems as was reported previously.

Checking out the newest article at EXN: says that as of their writing, 35 teams are out.

Tove Christenson was removed from the race for hypothermia and the others decided to quit as well and not continue unranked. Another Cdn. team that is now unranked had a member come down with an intestinal illness that apparently is a major reason for a lot of teams not completing the course. One of the Canadian teams that are now listed as unranked decided to wait for the other and have joined forces to complete the course.

Two other Cdn. teams (Advair and Running Free) who were both doing AWESOME! had to drop out after members had "jungle rot" on their feet so bad that they could no longer walk. The article says that it was so bad that they had to be given morphine.

Ryn

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 12:25 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I think the time between CP 5 and cp 6 was 24 hours for some of the early teams so between the difficulties at CP 6 reporting and the long time betweenthose CPs I think that might be the explinaiton.

The highest ranked team not to CP 6 yet had a 9 hour lead on Mad River. And Mad River is now 48th (2 more teams out of the race).

Rissa

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 02:33 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Makes sense Ryn, thanks.

At last check Seagate from Australia has taken over first place. I don't know how they managed to gain that much time. Says they left cp13 at c8:30 am while Buff AXN was getting into cp13 at c4:00am. So it could just be a temporary lead based on their leaving the pitstop faster.

Says Mad River left cp5 at 6:40 pm on the 15th. It is now 9:00am on the 17th (local time), so roughly 38 hours. Do you know if each CP has it's own time limit or is the only one the 12 days to the finish? Either way, they better start to boogie. LOL

Yankee_In_Ca

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 06:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
As promised -- Here's an update today from the mom of Team Montrail's Rebecca Rusch, who just arrived in Fiji (she had been filing reports from afar). Rebecca's mom is an ardent supporter of the team (and, of course, her daughter), and sends these update e-mails a few times a day. I won't bore you with the old ones, but I'll start today. While these updates focus on only one team, they definitely give you an "insider's" perspective on what it is like for participating teams.

FROM MONTRAIL "MOM":

Thursday, 11:00am Fiji time

Bula from Fiji! Surprised smiles and big hugs from Team MONTRAIL/Parallax at 1:05am Thursday morning! They were asleep as the shuttle truck drove them into CP11 on the ocean shore...as they woke up, they saw me standing there. Wish you'd seen how they lit up. So glad I came.

After the bike leg (CP8-CP9), the team trekked to CP10 where they had some rope work and a trek to a pick-up point...Chevy trucks (one of the sponsors) shuttled the teams to the sea kayak put-in. After arriving at the hotel at 3pm, I showered and went straight out to CP11 to await the teams. Buff came in 1st about 5pm and departed at 6:30. GoLite and Seagate came in next 5 1/2 hrs later...a seeming insumountable lead for Buff. MONTRAIL/Parallax, Air Pacific and Mazda all arrived within minutes of each other around 1am.

As of 3:05am, 5 teams had left CP11 and a 6th (Mazda) was ready to leave but decided to sleep for an hour. No other teams were expected for 4 hrs or so.

Back to our guys, they all look pretty good all things considered. Nothing major going on with any of them, other than being tired, hungry, dirty, etc. Patrick said "We'd have been here sooner, but my feet were the problem." Shane was virtually asleep on his feet, but Tony assured him "Once we start paddling, you'll be fine...we'll sing to keep you awake." Patrick and Tony did the maps for the last leg of the race while Rebecca worked on packs. They were all moving in a sort of slow-motion...but glad to be there, and still upbeat. Tony and Rebecca said, there's still a lot of race to go and a lot of tired people in front of us. Both MONTRAIL and Air Pacific were chatting during the transition about how the heck did BUFF jump up to first...none of them could figure out how they did it.

They took off all smiles after some futzing with the kayaka rudders, spray skirts and gear that normally would have taken only moments. Rebecca grinned and said "you'd think we'd never done this before." She also whispered to me, "Boy, do I have some stories to tell."

Anyway, just after 3am, MONTRAIL/Parallax paddled out at the virtually the same time as Air Pacific. We watched from the beach until the glow sticks disappeared.

This ocean leg is expected to tak 24-36 hours and includes a paddle 40 km out into the open ocean. They will stop at a large island where they have rope work to do. Somewhere along the way, they also have a snorkeling exercise, and at one point, the teams will split with each boat (2 persons each) will go different directions and meet up again.

Buff's seemingly insurmountable lead wasn't...Seagate and GoLite caught up with them at CP13 (the big island where all the stuff above happens). Seagate is now in the lead. MONTRAIL/Parallax and Air Pacific are tied for 4th place...arriving at CP12 just before 7am.

I'm so glad I came...I think it gave them an emotional boost. All four gave me huge hugs and kisses...though must confess they all stunk to high heaven.

Anyway, now we watch and wait...hopefully the weather holds. The ocean was like glass when they took off last night, and it is still pretty calm today so far. And we still "have a race" as the top 5 teams are all within striking distance.

Time to hit the beach for me,
Judy (aka Team MONTRAIL/Parallax "Mom")"

Yankee_In_Ca

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 06:36 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Rissa -- there's an update that mentions some Canadian teams on the sleepmonsters.com site...

Just thought you'd be interested.

Yankee_In_Ca

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 06:39 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Also, to clarify Seagate is from New Zealand, NOT Australia. (Sorry, but I've seen it referenced here as Australia a few times, and I know how sensitive the Kiwi/Aussie thing is!!)

:)

Rissa

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 07:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
LOL, Thanks Yankee for both the sleepmonsters tip and the New Zealand flag thingy. I didn't even check the team name on the list, just recognized the flag and assumed.

Myjohnhenry

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 11:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
1742 Update from Fiji....

Leaderboard
1. Seagate (New Zealand)
2. Air Pacific (Australia)
3. Golite/Balance Bar (USA)
4. Montrail/Parallax (USA)
5. Mazda (South America)

1st 3 teams have passed checkpoint 14 and the 2nd 2 have passed 13
SPIE and Earthlink are next having passed 12 and Nokia has passed 11

There are now only 29 teams left...the remaining are all disqualified including Mad River and the recent front runner Buff AXN
The Playboy team is last of the 29 still in the race.

I think the map ended because much of the rest of the race is in the Ocean or on the coastline.

Myjohnhenry

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 11:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Rissa...meant to mention in my last post....many of the comments that seem knowledgable have been family members or supporters and I am guessing that some of the teams have a network for the information getting out. (One teams guestbook referenced the staff at Eco Challenge contacting them.)

Ryn

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 11:34 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
DANGGGG - a lot changed in a short time.

And there are no "unranked" teams anymore - it will be interesting to hear what transpired that so many teams were DQ's in suc ha short time and that it appears none are running unranked (or being allowed to).

I guess some of the water stuff might not be do-able by less than 4 people.

Ryn

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - 11:45 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Checked the other two sites (mountain zone and sleepmonsters) nothing really "new" there except one note that said as of Day 6 (yesterday) they expected the winner to finish around dawn of the 18th - which would be some time today for us. But then again that was before Buf was DQ'd so who knows now.

Rissa

Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 05:43 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I feel especially bad for the teams that were so close to the end being ranked in the top. They have lost Montrail too!!! Says that Buff is out because of a team member's foot infection.

Top five at about 11pm local time were:
1 Seagate (New Zealand)
2 GoLite (USA)
3 Air Pacific (Australia)
4 Mazda (South Africa)
5 Spie (France)

What do you guys think about 2/3rds of teams being out? They said this was going to be the hardest competition yet, but it seems to me that it might be too hard. I know avoiding injury and illness is part of this competition but it also looks like this years winner will not be the fastest, most skilled team but the one with the best immune system. LOL

Rissa

Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 05:54 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Playboy team is out as well, just caught that on the sleepmonsters site. They are saying that typically 40% of teams finish, we are already down to 33%.

Yankee_In_Ca

Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 08:54 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Yowsa -- I just got up and the race is completely changed! I don't know what happened to Montrail, but the following update does shed some light on why Buff dropped out -- it was obviously sent out before Montrail dropped out/was DQ'd.

FROM TEAM MONTRAIL "MOM":

Thursday, 1pm Fiji time

At noon today, Team Buff withdrew from the race. After overshooting CP12 last night, they had a long and discouraging paddle back to the CP. They arrived into CP13 about 3:30am, but had not left before the next 4 teams arrived. We just got word that due to bad feet (a trek and rope work is required after CP13) and overall exhaustion they were dropping out. What a tough break for a team that has run such a great race.

So, now we are looking at a very tight race between the top 4 teams with only 3 hours separating them.

CP13 status:
1st - Seagate out at 8:36am
2nd - GoLite out at 9:29am
3rd - Air Pacific out at 10:32
4th - MONTRAIL/Parallax in at 11:15am

Three other teams are on the water: Mazda out of CP12 3h20m hrs behind MONTRAIL, Spie out of CP12 5 hrs behind MONTRAIL and Earthlink out of CP117 hours behind MONTRAIL.

The wind has picked up...paddling will be tougher, but hopefully the wind is "right" for the sails or kites. We definitely have a tight race for top honors. There is still at least 24 hours of racing to go for the lead teams, and as we've seen already...anything can happen.

In the rest of the race, teams are dropping fast. As of noon today, there are 36 ranked teams still on the course out of the original 80.

Now is the time to really send those "good vibes" to Rebecca, Patrick, Shane and Tony. Good job Team MONTRAIL/Parallax.

Just passed Mark Burnett in the lobby...after a hug he said he was so glad I came, and he praised the team and how well they're doing.

Getting exciting!!!
Judy (aka Team MONTRAIL/Parallax "Mom")

Yankee_In_Ca

Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 08:59 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Rissa said:

"What do you guys think about 2/3rds of teams being out? They said this was going to be the hardest competition yet, but it seems to me that it might be too hard. I know avoiding injury and illness is part of this competition but it also looks like this years winner will not be the fastest, most skilled team but the one with the best immune system. LOL"

Actually, there has been a lot of controversy from within the sport lately about this very subject. At last year's World Championships in Switzerland (which Nokia from Finland won), only 9 teams finished out of 48. And those 48 had to qualify to make it to the World Champs, so they weren't rookies, either!

There has been a trend to push the sport to the boundaries of physical limits -- limited sleep, low immune systems, etc. -- and there HAVE been a few very serious accidents in races in the past year.

I know safety is an issue everyone's talking about, but I don't think there have been any sweeping changes to the sport yet.

Rissa

Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 09:00 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I know Yankee, I had the same reaction when I got up this morning. LOL They better lower the entrance fee or make the race a BIT easier next year or Burnett won't have too many takers. :)

Yankee_In_Ca

Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 09:02 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Also, I don't know for sure, but usually during races, at a certain point the race directors have to make a decision to cut off the race. Otherwise, some teams might be out there forever, and that puts a huge strain on race organizers, safety, medical, etc. They may have said, "If you don't reach CPX by x:00, you cannot continue."

Just my guess, anyway.

Yankee_In_Ca

Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 09:07 am EditMoveDeleteIP
OK, not that it matters, but now that Montrail is out of contention, I'm rooting for Seagate! You guys might remember them from last year's Eco -- they lost on the last day due to sleep hallucinations on their home turf.

They also came in 2nd in the World Champs last year, so they came "this close" on two big races last year and I'd like to see them win.

(Of course, anyone who wins is awesome, I'd just like to see Seagate have a win -- they're fabulous, laid-back people and deserve it)