Picking up from yesterday –
A quick note just to say how thankful I am that someone actually came out of their house to help me. In our cynical world, it’s easy to ignore people in need, but I felt taken care of in that neighborhood.
Eventually, I started breathing again, made my way back to the beginning of the trail, which also happened to be the finish line. I. survived.(!) I collected my medal and was all done with that biznatch.
Turns out, I was not the only one who narrowly escaped death. Everyone was getting lost out there. People were wading through standing pools of water and mud.
A couple of people that I’d met at the previous day’s race were kind enough to carpool with me. There was a sweet volunteer named Rich who talked to me at Widdle Wattle, and offered to let me jump in on the carpooling with him and Rick (a runner) the next day.
Well, when I ran into Rick at the finish of this race – he had blood pouring down his forehead! He’d tripped, fallen, and gashed his head wide open… when he wasn’t near any aid stops. There were loops in the (narrow) trail, and if you got hurt miles from an aid station, well, walk the rest of your loop ‘til you find help.
So, he walked for, I guess, from what I heard, more than a mile after breaking open his head.
We both ended up finishing… by the skin of our teeth! As nice as everyone was here, let’s get out and never return.