How does your body cope with 100 hours of exercise and sleep deprivation? How well does your mind cope? Your muscles? Your immune system?... What causes fatigue - your mind or your muscles? We know a lot about how your body copes with a single bout of exercise. We also know how it responds to exercise training. But we know hardly anything about how it responds to virtually continuous exercise over several days.

This year's Southern Traverse is a unique opportunity to explore such questions. We're racing close to the University of Otago, with scientists working together from:
- The School of Physical Education
- The Human Performance Centre
- The Department of Human Nutrition
- Dept. of Medical and Surgical Sciences
and also with those from the Panum Institute and HortResearch. The NZ Academy of Sport, which has a particular interest in sporting performance, is also providing support. The promotion of this science and technology is supported by the New Zealand Government's Science and Technology Promotion fund, administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand.