At the end of three-and-a-half days of racing and with about 700 kilometres travelled, Greg and Denise McHale, alongside teammates Alex Provost and Stuart Lynch, crossed the finish line under the cover of darkness in Casper, Wyoming, faces lean and coated with dirt.

The adventure racing team, competing under the Team Tecnu banner had finished second at the Rev3 Cameco Cowboy Tough Adventure Race in Wyoming.

The race served as a qualifier for the World Championships of Adventure Racing, which will take place in Australia this November.

Team Tecnu entered the race was the three-time defending national champions, but last year a shake-up led to the members who had won racing under a new banner this year, USA Adventure Medical Kit (AMK).

The cleared roster made way for Carcross adventure racers Greg and Denise to re-enter competition and complete some unfinished business.

“I think it’s been a long time getting here,” said Greg in the minutes leading up to the race. He stood near the start, kitted out in his cycling gear, polarized sunglasses sitting upside-down on his helmet.

He and wife Denise had been adventure racers before, but took some time off to settle down and start a family. They live in Carcross with their two children and run the Caribou Crossing Trading Post.

Team Tecnu manager Doug Judson predicted the race, which began last Thursday in the Wyoming city of Casper, would be “won on the bike, the paddle and the transitions.”

True enough, it was a fast race, decided by time and not by points, which teams collected as they navigated the course hitting checkpoints along the way.

“It’s going to be hot and fast,” Judson said ahead of the start.

Teams started out early Thursday morning with a 30 mile biking leg before launching their tandem kayaks onto the North Platte River.

In the first 10 hours of racing, athletes had mountain biked for 48 kilometres, paddled for 27k and trekked for another 3k. Their fourth leg would be another 21k paddle to Douglas, during which a lead pack of six teams broke away.

In Douglas they participated in events with a local flare, a shot of whiskey (or iced tea) at College Inn, locating a checkpoint in a sleeper car at the Douglas Railroad Interpretive Centre and another at the Camp Douglas POW camp.

By the end of Thursday, the top teams were so fast they had to be held at transition area four until daylight to continue paddling.

During this leg, Team Tecnu pulled into the lead and started the climb up Laramie Peak ahead of the other teams.

But stomach issues hampered the team’s efforts and they slowed down so they could keep moving.

Near the summit, at 11,000 feet, AMK took over the lead and Tecnu wasn’t able to regain the time.

Team Tecnu bagged a few hours of sleep to start the next day of racing fresh.

In a Facebook update filmed by Judson, Greg McHale said that the team was bouncing back after a good night’s sleep.

“Hopefully that pays dividends today,” he said.

The team continued to race hard, working well together in tough sections and through punishing head winds.

Later in the day, the team was still unable to get the lead team back in their sights.

“We dropped some time yesterday evening and we just haven’t been able to make it up. That’s the way racing goes,” said Greg. Your stomach doesn’t always agree with you and both he and Provost had a hard time keeping food down for a while the previous day. “We’re still going, the race isn’t over.”

As the teams pulled into the final transition area to gear up to the push to the finish line, a team member said they were travelling at a snail’s pace of about four kilometres an hour up a hill.

“It has been the hardest 147k in one day that I’ve done,” said Greg.

“It was a spirit sucker, big time,” said Denise.

And although the team knew the win had slipped from their grasp, they pedaled hard into the finish back in Casper.

Their final time was nearly three hours back from first place.

Team AMK had previously qualified and won their free entry to the World Championships and so that prize went to Team Tecnu.

“It’s been fun watching these guys race,” said Judson.

The team will have months to rest and prepare before they head to Australia for the big show against the world’s best adventure racing teams.