Click to zoom

This is Ian Adamson at the Beast of the East Adventure race in Virginia, just near Roanoke, and this morning at about 5:22am, the first team, Pharmanex/Salomon, with Robert Nagle and Isaac Wilson, crossed the finish line in first place.

They were followed about an hour-and-a-half later by team Explorer, with four athletes from across the country. Everyone was in good spirits, extremely tired. About to finish in an hour or two, we've a third team, Cathy Sassin and Steve Gurney from New Zealand. They will be the first mixed team and the third team over the line.

"They've been hallucinating; they've been talking to people in minivans out on the river, which of course aren't there, but we don't tell them that..."

Everyone has been extremely tired. It's the fastest adventure race in the history of adventure racing for an expedition length, which is 300 miles plus. So, at a 350 mile race, we've seen the teams come in in about three and a half days which is a full day faster than the previous fastest race which was the Raid Gauloises, 1994. So, that averages 117 miles a day — extremely fast for an adventure race where navigation is involved.

People are not sleeping; the leading teams are sleeping a total of two to three hours over the entire race. They've been hallucinating; they've been talking to people in minivans out on the river, which of course aren't there, but we don't tell them that.

The lead team came in, in fact, and didn't realize they had finished until they were actually up on the grass. And the second team also had some people right near the finish line talking — they thought were talking to other teams — until they realized that they were actually finishing.

So that gives you an idea of what's happening in the race. It's been extremely exciting; very, very close. The lead teams have been swapping the lead for the entire race until the last paddle section, which was a 26-mile paddle to the finish line. And what we're expecting to see now is the last two or three teams from the top group finish this morning, and then a full 15-20 hours back is the main bulk of the field; of course, the top teams have a lot of experienced and elite athletes and some professional adventure racers.

That's all for now, we will call back with more updates.

— Ian Adamson, reporting from Beast of the East

BEAST DISPATCHES