Animal advocate joins vegan team in Eco-Challenge.

Byline: REBECCA NOLAN The Register-Guard

Eugene native Marci Hansen is traveling to the other side of the earth to spread her message of veganism and animal rights.

But her brief stay in tropical Fiji won't be a vacation by any stretch of the imagination.

Hansen, youth marketing coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is the only woman on Team PETA, the first all-vegan team to compete in the most arduous of endurance races, the Eco-Challenge. The team leaves for Fiji today.

The brainchild of Mark Burnett, creator of NBC's hit reality show "Survivor," the Eco-Challenge tests competitors' emotional and physical strength as they race nonstop for days over 320 miles of steep mountains, jagged limestone cliffs, dense jungles, rough rivers and breathtaking canyons.

Eco-Challenge 2002 begins Wednesday, thrusting 75 teams into the wilderness of the 333 islands that make up the Fiji archipelago. The race will take six to 12 days to complete, and all four members of each team must cross the finish line together or else be disqualified.

"I tend to be a very all-or-nothing type of person," Hansen, 33, said recently from her office at PETA headquarters in Norfolk, Va. "I can't just go for a bike ride. I have to race."

Born and raised in Eugene, Hansen graduated from North Eugene High School and went on to study at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

She frequently returns to Eugene to visit her father, Dean Hansen, senior vice president of Pacific Continental Bank; her mother, Pat Hansen, a Lane Community College instructor; and her brothers, Jasen and Jesse.

"The outdoor area of Eugene and the Northwest have been a major influence for me," she said. "I miss it."

An avid adventure-racer, Hansen has competed in 15 multi-sport competitions in the last five years. She never considered signing up for the Eco-Challenge, now in its ninth year, until a PETA co-worker suggested the media-heavy event as a great way to expose an international audience to veganism.

Hansen became a vegetarian 10 years ago when she overheard two co-workers in the advertising department of a Seattle company discussing their own decision to forgo meat. Her father, who will meet her at the finish line in Fiji, soon followed her into vegetarian life.

Then, two years ago, she eliminated dairy products, eggs and all other foods derived from animals from her diet. It was a natural progression.

"Almost immediately after you make the decision to be vegetarian, you can't help but come across animal rights issues," she said. "I had already given up leather and hadn't actually drunk milk in years and years."

Finding sufficient fuel can be tough for any endurance racer, but for Hansen and company, eating on the Eco-Challenge course will be a careful and studied activity.

The team will fuel its trek with tofu jerky, dairy-free energy bars, dehydrated refried beans and mashed potatoes, and high-calorie foods such as peanut butter, doughnuts and potato chips.

Team PETA entered this year only because the race includes no horseback or camel riding. The racers outfitted their mountain bikes with nonleather seats and will wear running shoes made without animal hide. The team briefly considered dropping out of the competition before Eco-Challenge organizers adjusted the rules to allow for nonleather rappelling gloves.

They'll display the PETA logo on their jerseys and helmets, along with the logo of Roxanne's, an all-vegan San Francisco restaurant. The team plans to sleep about two hours a night.

In preparation for the big event, Hansen trained about 18 to 20 hours a week when she wasn't interviewing rock stars and professional skateboarders for PETA's youth Web site, peta2.com.

She hiked and biked the Shenandoah Mountains and kayaked the rivers surrounding her Virginia Beach, Va., home. Training in the heat and humidity of summertime Virginia should prepare her for the tropical heat of Fiji, she said.

"We've been doing so much training and so much gear-gathering, we feel like Eco-Challenge is going to be easy compared to that," she said.