August 22: Teams sigh with relief as Eco-Challenge closes
By Dan Morrison

Team New York's Finest were the last to cross the finish line this year

The 1997 Eco-Challenge is finished. The last team to cross the finish line, Team New York's Finest, staggered ashore in Cairns at 9:50 p.m., just two hours and ten minutes before the midnight August 21 deadline.

Ray Nalpant, Linda Brymer, Christopher Ballou, and John Cummings are all New York police officers. The are also now successful Eco-Challenge veterans.

There are a hell of a lot of police officers in New York. There are only four who have endured and persevered in the Eco-Challenge to the very end.

They were greeted by a small but very vocal crowd of supporters. Robert Nagle, captain of the first team to cross the finish line, congratulated each member of the last team to do so.

Standing at the finish line, 40-year-old Linda Brymer popped the cork on the bottle of champagne and said, "That scared the hell out of me."

When asked how being a police officer in New York prepared her for the adventure race, Brymer replied, "You're trained in life-and-death situations. It could happen at any time."

Was the race different than the streets of New York?

"No question," laughed Brymer. "Let me tell you about the Outback ... In New York we have to deal with people. Here we had to deal with the terrain.

"We had our ups and downs. We had our moments. I had my doubts. I thought, 'What am I doing here?' Then we'd get something going, and the spirits would get up again, and we'd plod along. Then the weather came and beat us down. And the lava rocks beat us down. You get bumps and bruises. I fell everywhere, I've got mud everywhere. On the bikes, on the rocks. Flipping over in the kayaks. I was just incredible."

And the lesson learned from the experience?

Standing shoulder to shoulder with her teammates, Brymer smiled directly into the barrage of cameras.

"Nothing can conquer us now."

Dan Morrison covered the Marathon des Sables for Outside Online.