These are two of the more serious, life-threatening accounts and the more publicized of them. Both Gurney and Thompson continue to race, which raises other questions, perhaps about the wisdom and relative IQs of our ANZAC brethren.

Anyone who follows adventure racing closely (or who reads The New York Times) has heard about the large number of sickly competitors arriving home from Borneo. As word broke, Mark Burnett of Eco-Challenge immediately flew Adrian Cohen, Eco-Challenge Sabah 2000's medical director, to Los Angeles from Australia, and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) was immediately consulted to monitor the problem. Said Cohen, "We were, of course, very surprised because we had done our homework. There had not been a case of Leptospirosis in the Madai Caves in 12 years. The good news is that Leptospirosis is a benign bacterial infection that is readily identifiable; you can test for it, and it is readily treatable with antibiotics. As soon as we heard, we got the CDC involved..."