Between sips of cocoa on our last anchor watch, Graham looked at me and said, "I don't think I've ever gotten first in anything." It hit me: it wasn't just him. After twelve stages of pushing from behind, our team had one last chance to change that. What it took to get there is the part that made it matter...

I thought I knew what crossing the finish line of a circumnavigation would feel like. A few weeks before race finish, I even wrote down my predictions. Reading them now, I'm struck by what I got right - and what I couldn't possibly have understood until I was standing on the other side of it. It turns out you can prepare for the finish line, but not for what comes after.