Day 4,475—Running with a Shirt I ripped in Florida! The Vero Beach Octopus 100 Part VII: Lost in the Marsh!—

 

Start time: 8:07 a.m.

Weather: Low 80s, wind 9.2 mi/h, Humidity 81%

        I worked for hours on writing and the Florida video, and I feel like I have barely made any progress! I have so much more footage than usual, so it is turning into a much longer time commitment to edit the video. I don’t have a lot going on this week besides trying to get chores done and spending time with my daughter. It looks like it is going to rain today, so we’ll have to do something inside. I shouldn’t be rushed, but today I had to drive my wife to the shop to pick up her car, so it threw my morning off a little. At the same time, I can use the encouragement to get my run in during a decent time. If I had nothing on my calendar, who knows, I might still be in bed now.

        I felt like I was going so much faster than I was, but I am just happy to be running and not feeling miserable. I still have so much laundry to catch up on and some other boring things, but I washed my nice, expensive shirt I wore last week and noticed a huge rip in it. I remembered I ripped this shirt the week before during the race. It was over 50 dollars for this shirt, and I bought it for the second time I ran the Shawnee Hill 100, so I have gotten my money's worth by now. I wore it the whole time during the Mohican 100 in May! It was a good shirt, but it is goodbye for now.  

The Vero Beach Octopus 100 Part VII: Lost in the Marsh!—

Arm 6: Overlook Hotel

Time of Day: 9:47 p.m.

Arm Distance: 9.8 Miles

Terrain: Trail, sidewalk, lakeside trail

        I was in such a good mood when I started out. I accidentally drank Mountain Dew at the aid station but didn’t care because I could finally drink caffeine! I downed one of the Celsius energy drinks I brought for the race. I connected my headphones for the first time and started listening to loud music. I put on my extra bright headlamp and ditched the uncomfortable one I used for the last arm.

        It is an odd part of the race to be in when you have run over 60 miles, but you’re only a little more than half done. I had already had such a long day, but here I was trying to sprint again. I ran into a guy who was still working on the 50 on the way out and encouraged him. I was suddenly making friends everywhere I went, and people were talking to me. I saw a guy heading the opposite direction, and he looked spooked.

        “There is no tracking box for your bib that I could find!” That’s the first thing he told me. I wasn’t sure why this bothered him so much. I had run plenty of races without boxes. I was trying to make sure the boxes registered my bib when I ran past, but I wasn’t constantly thinking about each one for the arms; this guy looked frazzled, and I listened to him and kept going. I had just drunk caffeine, and this guy was at least 10 miles ahead of me. I needed to move!

        I was now running on the sidewalk and feeling amazing. The sun was down, and I felt like I could breathe again. I kept going and then ran into another runner who was with a few people. She shouted something at me as I passed her. Something about a handwritten sign. I appreciated people trying to help me navigate, but I had the route on my phone. How lost could I get? I knew this was the creepy/scary section that they had mentioned not going in alone before, but that advice wasn’t for me, was it? I would be fine going it alone, right?

        It wasn’t too far until I saw the handwritten sign. It looked like it said go forward, but it had a slight turn, so I thought maybe I was supposed to turn left. I looked at the route on my phone, and it said that I was supposed to do a loop here, but I couldn’t see the sign for the turn. I was supposed to go right, not left, too, so this sign seemed so confusing. I started walking and headed back. A loop can start at two parts, so I guessed maybe I needed to go down a little and turn. I followed the app and found what looked like the spot. I also started seeing signs from the race, but they were faced the other way, so I figured I must be entering this loop backward. I looked at the route on my phone, and I was supposed to go straight and then turn and follow a coast and then turn somewhere and run back the other way on a beachfront property. They called the arm the “Overlook Hotel,” a reference to the Shining that I should have gotten, but I wasn’t thinking about horror movies, so I assumed that was the name.

        When I first saw it, it looked like a parking garage. There were all these concrete structures covered with graffiti. I don’t know if I thought they were creepy, but they were something. I saw I was supposed to turn again, but when I followed the trail, it led me to a different section, so I took out my phone and tried to find the next path. I thought I was just going out into the grass, but there was a path. It led to a scarecrow that was in the middle of a wooded area. I am not sure who it was supposed to scare away. It took me by a fence with a huge "No Trespassing" sign posted.

        Normally, I wouldn’t continue, but the race director said it was normal for this race. That we should expect the course to take us to places that are normally out of bounds. They had gotten all this special permission to do the race, so I reluctantly passed this section and began to find my way to the first turn. I kept hearing what sounded like a train close by, and I saw another big sign, “BEWARE TOXIC DUMPING.”

        So now I have seen a sign about toxic waste dumping, as well as a general "beware" sign. I couldn’t wait to get this section of the course over with. I was still trying to be in a good mood, but I turned my music off and walked more than ran because I was afraid I was going to miss another turn. I noticed on my map that I was going to turn right and run down the beach back the way I came, so I kept looking for the turn. I didn’t see an official-looking turn or trail, so I figured it might be through the woods like it has been in the past. Right around where my phone told me to turn, I saw some grass flattened out, so it looked like there was a little path there, so I turned.

        The first part I saw was thick brush that clearly no one had gone through, but I was sure I just had to make it through, and I would be back on the other side like we had so many other times before. I was also frustrated with this race at this point. Why couldn’t the directions be more clear!?! I cannot believe they’re having us go in this area in the dark?!

        I just wanted to push on and get it over with, which I realize now was a huge mistake. I looked at my phone again, which was hard because the brush was so thick, but now it was telling me to turn again. I looked ahead and saw black water. I realized I was in some sort of marsh, but it looked like if I just made it through this area I would be back on dry land, so I stepped in the water, grabbed a tree, and pulled myself to the other side. I figured that sucked, but it was over now. Once I got my bearings on the other side, it was just telling me that I now needed to go to the left into the water where there wasn’t any land close by.

        I kept trying to follow the Gai app on my phone, but it just told me to go in the water. I went over several more water crossings, but each time I made it to the other side, all I saw was more water around me and my phone telling me I actually needed to get into what looked like deeper water. Every time I made it to the other side, I got my phone out and looked to see I was going the right way, but each time it started telling me to go in a different direction. My hands were so wet that the screen kept changing; it was hard to get it back to the navigation area. I was literally stuck by the tree branches, and now I noticed alligator icons in the water on the app. I was just so upset and wanted to give up. I looked to see if I could go back the way I came, but now I wasn’t sure what direction that was. I screamed in frustration. I think I just screamed a curse word, or words, or phrases. I am not sure what I said. I just remember thinking about if other runners could possibly be close by. Maybe they would hear me? I wondered what I should do. I could try to sit on the little dry spot I was on, but if there were alligators close by, wasn’t that a bad idea? What was I going to do if something attacked me? I had seen people wrestle alligators at state fairs before, but they always had something to tie their mouths shut, and the alligators were small. I imagined a big “GIVE UP” button appearing out of nowhere and banging on it relentlessly! So what if I have to come back to Florida! I am done with this race, and I want to give up!!! Where am I? Why am I running in alligator- and toxic-waste-infested water?! I got some more energy and looked at my phone again, but the “buy now” prompt kept taking over the screen, and then I heard what sounded like a train or a car far off in the distance, but I couldn't pinpoint the direction I heard it, so I went that way. I had to cross more water, and more than once I kidded myself thinking I saw real land, but I didn’t. I had that sound, which was encouraging, and then I saw a race bib caught by some of the trees.

        For a moment, I wondered if someone else had gotten lost in there, but I soon realized it was my bib, and I felt great! I was going back the way I came! I kept heading that direction now with more confidence, and then I saw it! Grass! Actual grass! Now, I was back the way I had come. I had made it out, and I was alive!

        Part of me wanted to keep looking for the turn, but at the same time I was exhausted and spooked, so I used the breadcrumb feature on my Garmin watch to follow my trail back and go directly back to Octobase. I didn’t know what happened and how I had gotten so lost, but I figured that if I turned around, I could be disqualified. At the same time, I knew that I did over the distance I was required, so maybe I could just not say anything?! But what if other runners did the same thing I did? I needed to tell someone and tell the race director. Going past the scarecrow again and the abandoned concrete structures barely phased me.

        The first runner I met, I told her not to go into the wooded area. She was so kind and told me she wished she had been able to go with me because she was a solo runner too. This is such a strange detail to remember, but she told me that someone had given her a large Coke and a piece of pizza, which she ate, and they put her to sleep. She said that she would just go straight and turn around and not go into that area. This turned out to be pretty much what I was supposed to do, but I didn’t find out about that until later. I was still scared heading back to the Octobase. I was planning to tell him what happened, and if he decided to disqualify me, so be it, but that was so crazy, and my main concern was for other people trying to run in that same area.

Tomorrow! Find out what the race director said!  

Total Distance: 72.2

Lap Pace: 20 minutes and 36 seconds

Race Pace: 15 minutes and 54 seconds

Lap Time: 3 hours and 22 minutes

Total Time: 19 hours and 9 minutes