Eco-Challenge
The 2 Steves: Networking and Playboy Charms
Nice Steve / 15.10.2002
Salacious rumours that Team The North Face Kona were delayed due to Anna stumbling across a Fijian Headhunting chapter of the Royal Geographical Society and stopping for an evening soiree of networking opportunities and developing sponsorship contacts for next season have been vehemently denied by…well…nobody yet, but we are sure they are not true. Just hours later, more rumours emerged that Keith had, in a sorry repeat of his performance in Borneo two years ago, fallen under the hypnotic, blue-eyed charms of Kalin Olson in Team Smirnoff Ice Playboy X-treme and deliberately slowed his team down in order to pluck up the courage to ask her for her hand in…his autograph book. With nobody available to deny or confirm this rumour, it is currently the favourite among the Two Steve’s for explaining away their slow start.
It\'s a real pity about Brit team XL Lupus having to pull out at CP5 after so much hard work and toil. Naomi in particaular will be gutted after failing to finish with our team in Borneo two years ago too, due to her snapping her ACL. She has worked so hard to come back from that injury. Let\'s just hope they are all OK. The finish will seem a long, long way off for many teams and the drop-out rate is going to continue to gather pace.
It has been a slow news night on the other Brit and Irish teams as they forge their way through the jungle but the front of the race is dead exciting. After 4 ½ days of racing there are now four teams all within 5 minutes of each other, now that is what I call real pressure, especially as the champions of the last two years, Go-Lite Balance Bar, are back in there. They will all be tracking each other, thinking, thinking, thinking and plotting how to escape from the group. Do they sleep, do they risk shortcuts, do they do a Team Spie and risk being DQ’d by hiring in some local four-legged friends to speed their progress. This new lax Eco attitude to rules may well cause some serious arguments if the winning team pushes the limits of fair play but Mark Burnett will be revelling in this new mental twist to his race.
Unlike, doom and gloom Duffy, I think Team TNF Kona will be buoyed by their rapid recent progress and I expect to see their little flag pop up on the rankings table real soon at checkpoint 6, perhaps having gained another 2 or 3 places.
SleepMonsters
