Team Kelty-Cabela race diary--January 25
Joy Mann, team coordinator
The alarm went off at 4:30 a.m., and the team was eating breakfast by 5 a.m. No one really ate much--plates of food with a bit here and there gone. The evening before had been spent packing--again. They have cut off extra straps and webbing handles--anything to make the pack lighter. The pack-maker Kelty has given them top-of-the-line equipment. But a lot of the gear are prototypes, so the field-testing the team does will be valuable.

Last night ABC sports came and met with the team. The segment on the race will air sometime in April on Wide World of Sports. The team is working very hard on full sponsorship for next year.

Now for the latest race information: The start went well! Team Kelty-Cabela got a good place on the starting line, and was fairly early in the line-up.

At checkpoint (CP) Number 2, the first team came in at 6:50 a.m. Team Kelty-Cabela came through 21st at 7:07 a.m. By CP Number 3, it had moved up to 17th. Then at CP Number 4 ,all the teams started backing up. This is where they will change from trekking to canoeing. Because there are time restrictions on each discipline, the teams will not be traveling all night. All teams are camped at the river this evening.

In the morning they will be sent out at five-minute intervals to boat nearly 40 miles of the Senqu River. Then they'll trek two hours to the transition to horses at CP Number 8 (also the first assisted checkpoint). We will see them, help them repack, and organize them and their horses. They can only ride four hours, with a mandatory two-hour horse rest, then four hours again. If they get out of here by 2 p.m. Sunday, they can get a good start on Monday. They will horseback ride for two-and-a-half days. Then they will do some mountaineering.

Everyone feels strong. Captain Don Mann wants to finish in the top 10 with the whole team having given their all--no one stronger than anyone else. Nick Spaeder, in charge of the mountain bikes, feels the altitude may be a problem. Alan Holmes and John Kainer feel they will do great on biking and the river. They are all nervous, simply because they don't know what to expect. But they are all doing great so far!