Skip to content

Lawrence Foster's team wins Eco-Challenge

Four days, 20 hours and 21 minutes after starting out from Agawa Canyon, Lawrence Foster's Salomon Canada team crossed the finish line at 9:05 a.m. at Searchmont Resort, winning the 2003 Eco-Challenge North American Championship.
EcoChallenge

Four days, 20 hours and 21 minutes after starting out from Agawa Canyon, Lawrence Foster's Salomon Canada team crossed the finish line at 9:05 a.m. at Searchmont Resort, winning the 2003 Eco-Challenge North American Championship.

Foster, the hometown boy who captained the team through endless legs of trekking, mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking and rope climbing, estimated he got a total of 3 hours and 15 minutes sleep during the ordeal.

Other team members were David Zietsma, Chad Ulansky and Tamara Goeppel.

Expected to place second is Algoma's Water Tower Inn, last seen leaving Checkpoint 11 at 4:33 a.m.

That team is captained by another Saultite, Trisha Westman, who happens to be Foster's girlfriend.

Organizers tell SooToday.com that their best guess on an arrival time for the Water Tower Inn team here at Searchmont is 2 p.m. today.

As SooToday readers have learned over the past 24 hours, adventure racing is one of the most unpredictable of sports, so the final time of arrival may differ significantly from expectations.

Initial prognostications yesterday had the first competitors arriving at the finish line at 4 p.m.

Foster blamed his team's slow final cycling leg on "zombie syndrome."

Speaking to reporters at the finish line, the Saultite said he fell asleep and spun out on his bike several times. When he did that one time early this morning, he completely lost spatial orientatiion and although he was looking directly at teammate Dave Zietsma, couldn't say whether he was in front of him or behind him.

Foster told SooToday.com that he had some interesting hallucinations, including one about booking flights as he was travelling through the bush.

"It was someplace warm," he said.

Running third is Eastern Outdoors from New Brunswick.

Completely irrelevant SooToday.com factoid

At the finish line, sleep-deprived Eco-Challenge organizers announced that Foster's team took five days, nine hours and 21 minutes to complete the 500-kilometre course.

No way, said sharp-pencilled SooToday.com reader Technically Speaking, who argued that based on a 12:44 p.m. Sunday start, it should be 4 days, 20 hours and 21 minutes.

When confronted with Technically Speaking's calculations, Eco-Challenge organizers here in Searchmont acknowledged the error.

They're currently scrambling to issue a correction to news organizations.


What's next?


If you would like to apply to become a Verified reader Verified Commenter, please fill out this form.




David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
Read more