Southern Traverse – The Testing Ground

Rob / 02.10.2003

Individuals in today\'s ultra-endurance adventure races compete under incredibly intense conditions, both mental and physical, in ever-changing environmental and social conditions. In 100 hours, they might snatch two hours of sleep a day - if they are lucky. But while spectators might see them sweat and grunt their way through the competition, what\'s actually happening inside?

Dr Jim Cotter, a lecturer and researcher in Otago\'s School of Physical Education, is about to find out - both as a participant and a scientist. Part of a team entered in the race, Cotter also leads a team of Otago scientists who will monitor the progress of selected athletes as they grind their way towards the finish line of this November\'s Southern Traverse event.

What\'s more, the Royal Society of New Zealand is providing a generous $53,000 grant to the University and the Southern Traverse Race for a multimedia campaign that showcases the cutting-edge science and technology used in testing the race\'s effects on the athletes\' bodies and minds.

The Society will fund a landmark one-hour television documentary recording the researchers\' study of the athletes, which will broadcast both here in New Zealand and potentially around the world. This innovative public reporting of the science also includes a dedicated section on the event\'s website.

Using the latest technology, cognitive, physical and physiological measurements will be obtained to determine the specific effects of very prolonged, semi-continuous exercise on the human body. The results will help answer questions that Cotter - as a hardened endurance athlete himself - has long wondered about.

\"You push yourself out of your comfort zone and you do wonder what\'s really going on,\" Dr Cotter says. \"But it\'s a very difficult thing to measure, both in terms of time and what it is we\'re trying to look at - either you\'re in the middle of the night or the middle of nowhere when the screws come loose, and those particular screws are themselves quite nebulous to measure.\"

Fortunately, this year\'s Southern Traverse takes place in Eastern Otago, starting and ending within the Dunedin city limits - and close to the University, its scientists and their labs. That proximity will assist in keeping a close eye on participants, he says.

Endurance events place the human body under great stress over a long period of time. While scientists know that bodies can adapt to stress over time, \"here we have both acute and chronic stress bound together - over four or five days,\" Dr Cotter explains. \"How does the body respond? What happens to our functional capacity? Is it limitation in the muscle or in the central nervous system that ultimately makes us fail?\"