Team Boogie Aspen [go to Team Bio] was nearly giddy with delirium. Team member Chris Morrow was slumped forward, his head between his knees, trying to sleep. A former member of the U.S. national rugby team, Morrow said he was looking forward to a bubble bath and a six-pack of beer when the finally reached the finish. The team joked around, sarcastic and cynical about their race. Said Captain Ben Niller: “Man, we were in 16th Place on day one, and couldn’t keep up that pace.” Morrow chimed in: “We thought there was going to be a pub-crawl portion of this race, and we would have done well there.”

The mood out on the water was both casual and resolute, as day ten Eco-blues mixed with the smell of the finish line. These trailing teams now know that barring the disaster of a massive storm, they will finish the jungle and ocean odyssey. Joked Kip Fiebig of Team Vignette [go to Team Bio], a software engineer from Austin, Texas: “We’re poised to make our move during the scuba section; there we can really make up ground.” That was meant sarcastically, as the scuba experience off the coast of Sibuan Island only lasts about 30 minutes, and no positions can change during that time. Teammate Darran Wells, a mountaineering instructor from Austin, Texas, had a rough race from the start. “Early on, I lost 40 Jolly Ranchers when my Ziploc filled with water," he said. "I opened it up and there were just empty wrappers and colored water. It was devastating. Then, I was trying to help another boat at the start and the boat crushed my toe, tearing off the toenail. So I’ve had some adversity.”

In contrast, a group of Brazilians seemed to be having a blast, despite deep fatigue. Team EMA/Brazil [go to Team Bio] was smiling and laughing. The two women, Carmen Lucia Da Silva and Silvia Guimaraes, were paddling hard while the men, Julio Pieroni and Vadir Pavao, rested. The men teased the women: "This is why we brought you along!” The team has experienced many highlights along the course. Said Silvia Guimaraes, who placed ninth in this year’s Elf Authentic Adventure in her homeland of Brazil: “Borneo is beautiful, but the jungle is too wet and dense and bloody because of the leeches. We did the canoe section at night, and we crashed a lot of times.” Asked what she was looking forward to at the end of the race, Carmen Lucia da Silva said with a grin: “Giving someone a kiss.”

Back behind the sailors, on the trekking stretch between Madai Caves and Port Madai, teams were physically and emotionally beaten down, struggling to just put one foot in front of the other. Team C-Magazines.com [go to Team Bio] took refuge from the sun at a little convenience store in front of a house, filling hydration systems and gulping soft drinks. They played with the local children, letting them try on helmets and joust with trekking poles. Charlie Engle, a documentary filmmaker from Salinas, Calif. said, “I raced in the 1998 Raid Gauloises in Ecuador, and this Eco-Challenge is harder.” That’s a real testament to the difficulty of this course, since the 1998 Raid in Ecuador had teams summit an active volcano, 20,000-foot Cotopaxi. Teammate Laura Roberts, in her first Eco-Challenge, had wrapped medical gauze around her pigtails and was covered in grime. "We wanted to be competitive," she said, "but Charlie’s feet got fried on that trekking section after the Sampans. That’s the way it goes.”

Teams EMA/Brazil and Team North/South [go to Team Bio], from Ireland, arrived at PC 29 close together, all in good spirits, but weatherworn. The Brazilian women took time out to crack one another’s backs, which were sore from the miles of paddling. Said Silvia Guimaraes: “If you notice, the women in this race are holding up better than the men. I think it is much more a mental race than a physical one, and women are mentally prepared. We are born to suffer.”

Said Noel Hanna of Team North/South: “Have some Guinness at the finish line, will ya?”