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A Competitor Reflects on the1996 Eco-Challenge Click on the small photos to see a larger image. |
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A Competitor Reflects on the1996 Eco-Challenge Click on the small photos to see a larger image. |
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Survival of the Fewest
Hundreds of Eco-Challengers smirked as organizer Mark Burnett announced teams with the best completion times of the 1996 race. The rest of us had confronted thorns, moraine, glaciers, and raging water, too, but it took us days to do what they could do in hours.
For many of us who had triumphed in the arid Utah environment in 1995, our defeat by British Columbia's lush mountains was bewildering. Was it the course--too hard, too long? Were we unprepared? What did top racers do differently from the rest of us, whose only view of the final leg was from a helicopter or a Land Rover? And for me, did it matter that my teammates had never completed an adventure race? Was it relevant that our team was mostly female, a reverse of last year when I was the only woman in the group?
The answers are not necessarily obvious. Utah was a course of dusty miles. We mindlessly put one foot in front of the other, "sleepwalking" on the flat trails. Racers collapsed from exhaustion and lack of water. In contrast, angles dominated the brutal forest hikes in British Columbia. As we clutched alders to pull ourselves close to the hill, we dodged rocks kicked by teams on higher ground. Racers collapsed from trauma and frustration.Team navigators tried to get us out of the deadfall. Impossible. Last year, they couldn't keep us out of the icy canyon water, either. The difference was that the deadfall blocked our view. Wrapped in branches and harassed by swarms of flies, we lost sight of the beauty of British Columbia. In the canyons, cold as we were, the stone towers and blue sky inspired us.
We weren't prepared for this. We trained for glaciers, rapids and tough mountain-bike trails--all later legs of the race--but the bushwhacking separated Teams Eco-Internet/Reebok, Hi-Tec and Hewlett-Packard from the league of non-finishers in the first two days. We didn't have their economy of movement, because we didn't have their all-terrain race experience. In short, unlike Utah, having a team of novices made a big difference.
As we passed teams on the trail, and as they passed us, we asked each other: Where was the race for mere mortals? In our minds, we weren't mere mortals, anyway. We were four women and a former Navy SEAL. In reality, the gender factor had no apparent bearing on our performance.
The British Columbia Eco-Challenge was a harsh race for many of the support teams for the same reasons it frustrated the racers. Confined to a cramped space at Transition Area (TA) 1 and isolated on a dusty road lined with dead trees at TA 2, support teams also lost sight of the area's natural wonders. Worse than that, many knew early on that their teams were not competitive. They knew the meals they fixed, ankles they taped, and packs they stuffed were for friends who would never cross the finish line. The news of next year's race in Australia thrilled people like Ian Adamson and Robert Nagle of the winning Team Eco-Internet. They know they can take a four-person team, with no support, through the desert and rain forest and come out smiling. On the other hand, when the "mere mortals" heard race details, many reflected on their disappointing struggle in British Columbia and thought, "What a ******* waste of money. I'll hike the Grand Canyon instead."
-- Maryann Karinch, Mountain Zone contributing writer
Maryann Karinch was on the only 4-woman/1-man team (Team Real, listed originally as Team United) entered in this yearıs EcoChallenge competition in British Columbia. Last year, she completed the Utah Eco-Challenge with Team MET-Rx and was the only woman on her team. She is the author of a book on the future of medicine and has written many articles about health, fitness and technology. She has made 600 skydives, is a certified scuba diver, and earned honors as a bodybuilder prior to becoming an adventure racer. Maryann serves on the faculty of the Presidio Adventure Racing Academy in San Francisco.
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