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I spoke with the Rabbits a couple of times today at TA4. First when the road in off the long biking section and again when they completed the river swimming section.

When I asked Jen what she made of the whole water situation she said they really didn't have any problems on either the horse trek or on the desert trek that followed. I mentioned that many of the top teams were complaing about there not being enough water stations and she laughed. "They're just not carrying enough. We each carried two 100oz bladders and two 25oz water bottles and did just fine."

It was primarily the leaders that were griping late on Sunday. Jen's theory is that they were carrying less water thinking that because they were planning to push hard and race fast they'd be spending less time in the desert and could get away with skimping. I tend to agree.

In addition to pacing themselves and bulking up on H20, Jason mentioned that they'd camped out in the shade at TA2 from about 1pm to 3pm (the hottest part of the day) in order to stay cool rather than press on and wear themselves out.

They spent much of the night on their bikes and hit the back to back water sections today at 11:30. At first blush you might worry that they're fairly far back in the pack. I think that's misleading. While the teams out front are testing themselves against all the desert has to throw at them the Rabbits are clearly taking a more strategic approach.

I'm betting that they won't have to pass that many teams to rise into the top ten...many of the teams in front of them will either drop out or slow down as the heat and dehydration takes it's toll.