"It's been a really rough race for us," explained Ellen Miller, 41, member of last year's 6th place team in Argentina. "We're feeling old."

Ellen Miller "It's been a really rough race for us, we're feeling old."

The veteran team, who won Eco-Challenge 1998 in Morocco, has had troubles throughout this year's race, contemplating dropping out during the jungle leg. All of its members are in their 40's.

The team's problems started when 49-year-old Andreas Boesel, the oldest member of the team, became violently ill during the first part of the jungle leg. In 13th place and less than 12 hours behind the leaders, with Boesel vomiting uncontrollably, they waited at PC 15 for 17 hours. The situation was race-threatening, but eventually Boesel, an experienced triathlete, recovered – if only partially – and the team plodded on.

Arriving at PC 20 with American Team Tactel Inspira [go to Team Bio] and American Team Discreet [go to Team Bio] in the morning on August 26, day 6 of the race, Vail seemed to be picking up speed. The three teams helped each other carry the heavy wooden Sampan canoes to the brown water's edge, but in the confusion, Vail/PacketVideo misplaced their maps and Eco-Challenge passport. The result: a mandatory six-hour time penalty, which the team served at PC 22.

Team Vail getting out of boat at PC 12 "We'll finish. Now that we're off our feet, we'll be fine." - Billy Mattison

At PC 23, team captain Billy Mattison stopped to chat with race director Mark Burnett. "We'll finish," he said. "Now that we're off our feet, we'll be fine."

Teammate Andy Lapkass, a lanky six-foot-five mountaineer who has twice summitted Mount Everest, barely fit onto the medical tent table. He, along with the other team members, received treatment for trench foot, blisters and lesions. Boesel was still feeling the remnants of his terrible sickness.

"I think we'll stay here and catch a couple of hours sleep," explained 42-year-old Mattison, a world-class river guide. A storm was reported to be approaching, and the team had decided to wait before setting sail on their Perahu.

The exhausted team hunkered down on four army cots behind an Eco-Challenge headquarters trailer. But less than an hour later – unable to sleep because of all the noise in camp – they had changed their minds.

Team Vail/PacketVideo began the final leg of their journey at 9:44 p.m.