Eco-Challenge Fiji - 2002

[SantaFe]

Here's a good report from Team Santa Fe for the Eco-Challenge Fiji, held in October 2002:

This year’s Eco-Challenge was full of difficulty and challenge as Mark Burnett predicted. The race began with organizing our team. Eric Jacobsen was given the slot, so the final determinations were for the captain of Team Santa Fe. He took his task seriously and recruited Jay Shotwell of Park City, Utah whose background included mountain guiding, river guiding and orienteering....

http://www.teamsantafe.org/02newsletters/newsletter_2002_10.shtml#Eco_Challenge_20021011

(thanks to CG at TSF for the link! -DAP)

[Dave]

And a great review of the race from Team Running Free:

October 2002: Bob, Ted, Marijke and myself had just completed an uneventful gear check-in and skills testing. At the pre-race meeting we were ready to get maps and instructions. Instead, all we got was a measly one page packing list that essentially said: pack 2-4 days of food, and some of your mandatory gear. No maps, no directions, no nothing...

http://www.runningfreeoutdoors.ca/ecofiji1.htm

For those interested in what types of diseases, infections, boils, and parasites the racers in Fiji acquired, Jack Crawford's article "Eco Medicine" provides a great review!

...I also came back with some unusual infections. Normally my cuts and scrapes don't get infected, or maybe they get a little red. This infection involved a little white stuff in the sores. I tried to clean everything out with Betadine, but one of the sores developed into a boil. I had to have it surgically opened because it didn't drain on its own...

http://www.beyondadventuresports.com/ezine/medical.htm

-Dave