10-in-10 athletes have mixed emotions as they start their Nevada challenge

Early this morning at Echo Lakes near Lake Tahoe, Nevada Appeal employees Jeremy Evans, Karl Horeis, Rick Gunn and former Appeal photographer K.M. Cannon began the Nevada 10-in-10 Challenge.

The Tahoe Rim Trail is the first of the 10 challenges, which involves 165 miles of hiking and mountain biking around Lake Tahoe. There will be daily updates with photographs in the Appeal during their adventure. Here are some of their pre-trip thoughts:

"I guess it's possible to be nervous and excited at the same time.

Even if it's not, that is the only way to describe how I feel," sportswriter Jeremy Evans, 24, said. "This past week has been amazingly chaotic with all the last-minute logistics needed to be taken care of. Yet it's pure bliss knowing the experience of a lifetime is only several hours away."

"As far as the upcoming challenges, I am mostly bracing for a huge amount of pain," said copy editor Karl Horeis, 25. "I've been unable to train like I wanted. My only option was to run after finishing my swing shift on the news desk at midnight. I've been getting home to the top of Kingsbury at 1 a.m. and running around the neighborhood with a full Camelback."

Appeal photographer Rick Gunn, 38, said he specifically looks forward to doing the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail the most and the 35-mile Ruby Crest Trail, near Elko, the least.

Gunn said he's confident that all 10 challenges will be met. When asked why he's doing this, he replied, "why not?"

"There are several reasons, some are selfish and some are altruistic," Gunn said. "I've always enjoyed challenges."

"I've been dying to do the Tahoe Rim Trail since it was completed in

September." said K.M. Cannon, also 38, and a photographer for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "And to do it with a great bunch of guys like this was too good an opportunity to pass up."