New Zealand's Team 28, Seagate.com, completed an impressive come-from-behind effort to win the 2002 Eco-Challenge on Friday morning, paddling in to the Sheraton Denarau Resort in Fiji at approximately 8 a.m.

"It's been a great course with awesome people," said one team member immediately afterward. Although racing on day 8, the team's winning time was almost exactly six days, 23 hours.

"This proves that it really isn't over until it's over," said race founder Mark Burnett at the finish line. He was referring to the fact that the team member Kristina Penny Strode had been seriously ill early in the race while at one point Spain's Buff AXN seemed to have the race in hand.

"It's been incredibly hard," said a team member after arriving on the beach. And another adding "I think our motivation was just to get it over with." The team had completed 18 checkpoints over the course of 500 kilometers by boat, foot, mountain bike and rope. "The course was almost a sadistic, mundane exercise," said a smiling Strode afterward. "At this stage, the main thing I'll take away from the event is the friendly Fijian people."

"When the Fijian national team dropped out earlier in the race, the local people sort of took us in as their national team," said a Kiwi team member. New Zealand is the closest large Oceanic land mass to Fiji.

Seagate had begun to make its move toward the front of the race on the final trekking section between CPs 10 & 11 on the main island of Viti Levu. As the Spanish team was moving up with its high-speed trek to take the lead, Seagate picked up the pace as well.

"When we came into the transition to the last walk, the Spanish were seven hours ahead of us," said Strode.

"So we put the hammer down, and knew we were closing on them. By the time we got onto the water to the next island CP [12], we were even with them," she said.

What Seagate didn't realize was that Spain had "burned their biscuits" on the trek and was now sitting at CP13 on Wayasewa Island deciding to quit the race. This would put Seagate into the lead for the first and final time of the race. "We didn't even know what had happened to Spain," added Strode. "Then someone told us that they were quitting and that we were in first place."

Seagate then made it around the island Thursday, hitting the water in the dark on Friday morning and leaving the final checkpoint, number 18, on Beachcomber (Levuka) Island at 5:35 a.m. Their closest chaser, USA's GoLite, was still back on Waya Island, having checked out of CP 16 at 1 a.m., hours behind the leaders. Team Montrail of the USA, meanwhile, had since decided to call it quits, leaving only a few teams in the hunt.

The main threat to the Kiwis may have been the Australian team, Air Pacific, known for its powerful paddling. "We were aware of the Aussies," said Strode. "We had made up a lot of time on Spain and knew that the Aussies could make up an hour and a half on us, so we made sure we didn't panic and knacker ourselves."

Seagate had little to worry about, however, as the Aussies didn't even leave CP 16, between the far islands, until 5 a.m. Friday morning. They were two CPs behind the rival Kiwis with just four hours remaining in the race.

And so, with the sun rising on a perfect Fijian day, the team calmly paddled in to the beach finish, received sulu sarongs from their hosts and an invite from Burnett to a 12-person breakfast buffet in the hotel.

Seagate had not given up, even with such a huge setback early in the race. Asked if they had considered quitting at any point, Strode answered, "Until you're on death's door, you just take time and sleep."

Asked what the key to their success was, Strode gave the answer familiar to any expedition-length adventure racing enthusiast. "From day one, we took time out to clean our feet, change our socks and lube our feet. We didn't run - we walked and were careful. And when I was sick we were sleeping a lot, so we were able to keep our feet dry. It wasn't until the final beach walk that I ever got any sand in my shoes."

Asked if foot management was a major factor in the race, Strode answered simply. "Of course, just look at what happened to Spain."

Asked what the team thought about on the course, Strode answered, "You think about a lot of things, but what you don't think about is comfort."

At this hour team GoLite/BALANCE Bar is in 2nd place, while Australian Air Pacific is 3rd. Watch for another update early tomorrow.

—Ari Cheren, MountainZone.com Correspondent