If the prospect of racing up to 22 hours a day for 10 consecutive days through waterfalls, canyons, white-water rapids and rain forests hasn’t deterred a South Florida team from entering the Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge, then you’d think the following might.

Wild pigs, pythons, crocodiles, poisonous snakes, leeches, wolf spiders and as organizers note, "things that bite, sing and suck."

"Look at the bright side, " said Kathryn Nowak, wife of Pembroke Pines Master Sgt. Joe Nowak, "at least he’s not getting shot at."

The fourth annual Eco-Challenge, which begins Aug.11, is a 300-mile invitational expedition that encompasses trekking, climbing, rafting, kayaking and horseback riding through Queensland, Australia. The outback, Great Barrier Reef and rain forest will challenge 50 four-person teams from 16 countries. Filmmakers also will travel the untamed terrain to tape a five-part documentary.

Competitors will ride horses through eucalyptus forests, pedal mountain bikes, swim deep canyons while pushing their backpacks and kayak the Pacific Ocean’s shark-infested Great Barrier Reef. They will navigate open gorges and climb under towering waterfalls, cross a desert, trek through a rain forest and white-water raft over Class IV rapids - nearly the most dangerous kind.

"They kind of want to drill into your head that this race will be your biggest nightmare," said Lourdes Otero, the sole woman on Team Miami Project (to Cure Paralysis). "But I need to do something I never imagined possible. I need to fill a gap."

This could be more like filling a crater.

BEWARE THE CREATURES

Besides the treacherous terrain on a course that isn’t revealed until the start, something more frightening awaits this year’s competitors: wild animals and insects, as described in a race newsletter.

• Wolf spiders: "This species is a ground-dwelling spider and is aggressive. Its bite releases a flesh-eating venom, which ulcerates and dissolves the skin."
• Goannas: "Goannas {about three feet long}, or monitor lizards, are mainly carnivorous and feed on the carcasses of dead animals. If you come upon a carcass, immediately, yet carefully, leave the area."
• Pythons: "These animals do not crush their prey but rather squeeze the breath out of the victim. The python then eats the subdued creature, dead or alive. Most Australian snakes are venomous with staggering potency. The American rattlesnake would barely rank among Australia’s top 20."

Said Army Capt. Blain Reeves, a member of Team Miami Project: "It makes you want to just run right out of the woods in your Spandex shorts and T-shirts, which, by the way, don’t make for great protection against snakebites."

Each competitor, armed with only a knife, must carry a strobe lamp, survival mirror, space blanket, lighter, two distress flares, whistle and smoke signal. Teams must have at least one woman and are unassisted except for a white-water rafting guide and trucks that drop equipment (such as bicycles) to transition areas before every segment.

Athletes use only a map and compass to find the finish. Competitors supply their own water and "chow" – energy bars, dried food, compact nutritional munchies. They are provided only one meal, halfway through the event.

"A meal?" said Reeves, who has competed in two Eco-Challenges and won the 1993 U.S. Army Best Ranger Competition. "Man, they’re getting soft."

VENTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN

"It’s like jumping out of an airplane,’ team veteran says. Who would want to go through this?

Two Army Rangers: Nowak, 38, and Reeves, 32.

One Stockbroker: Thomas Meier, 38.

Two students: Otero, 26, and alternate James Brenen, 24.

Of the five members of Team Miami Project, only Reeves has competed in previous Eco-Challenges – the inaugural one in Utah in 1995 and the other last year in British Columbia. His teams were forced to withdraw because each time an athlete was injured or dehydrated. Teams are disqualified if athletes separate or don’t finish together.

"It is extremely nerve-racking going into the unknown," Reeves said. "But the first time you do it, it’s like jumping out of an airplane. You don’t know what to expect, so you’re not that scared. The second time around is when your knees start shaking."

Meier’s wife, Donna, said she tries not to think about the danger, especially the wild animals. "I wasn’t worried until the kids {age 3, 9 and 11} started expressing concern. I told Tom, ‘Maybe you should sit and explain to them that this isn’t some death wish.’"

Relatives can relax: No one has died in an Eco-Challenge. The worst injuries have been broken bones and deep gashes.

"I’m excited for Tom," Donna Meier said. "I’d like to see him fulfill his dream of finishing. I tell him he’s going to come home really humbled or gun-ho about doing 10 more."

Except for Reeves, who trains alone in Orlando, Team Miami Project has worked together several days a week the past six months. They use the rock-climbing wall at the Eden Roc Resort & Spa in Miami Beach to work on their ascending and repelling techniques. The trek the Tamiami Train up to seven consecutive hours weekly with 30-pound backpacks, then ride mountain bikes there. They kayak in the ocean and are, except for Otero, experienced rafters.

TEAM PROVES METTLE

‘I think I can,’ racer says as test run boosts confidence. On Memorial Day weekend, they drove to Camp Frank D. Merrell – Mountain Ranger Camp – at the Georgia-Tennessee border and, after two hours’ sleep, completed the 15K Mountain Ranger Run, they trekked eight hours in the rainy cold. They also took part in the Eco-Challenge Adventure School’s Racing Camp June 12-16-5 at Pint Mugu State Park, an hour north of Los Angeles.

At Point Mugu, Team Miami Project proved its mettle, defeating four teams and completing the 40-mile course in 5 hours 54 minutes.

Meier, who formed the team, said Adventure Camp alone has changed his attitude toward life. "It drives all the pettiness, all the whininess out," Meier said. "When you compare it to no food and no sleep, someone who cuts you off on the Palmetto Expressway is not worth getting upset about."

The Eco-Challenge is about nature and how to survive. Campfires are prohibited, tents are nonexistent and a strict code of environmental protocol mandates racers leave the land exactly the way they found it. "Every wrapper, every piece of everything we carry into a place must be carried out," Meier said. "If race officials find one gum wrapper and can prove it was yours, they will disqualify you."

Reeves, who vows his new teammates will pull through this year, said the biggest reason he’s competing isn’t the $25,000 first prize. It’s to finish.

"I had never not finished anything I’d started," Reeves said. "I’ve made it through the hardest things the Army has to offer, and then this little thing called the Eco-Challenge stops me. You look at people and they’re constantly saying, ‘I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.’

"I think I can."

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Susan Miller Degnan
Herald Sports Writer
The Herald
July 13, 1997