Juli+Alstairs+vinner+Across+the+years.
Juli Alstairs vinner Across the years.
LOST 118 Race Report: Where Have All the 'Gators Gone?

The plan was to do the Sarasota Marathon on 2/15 and visit my mother in Bradenton nearby--I mentioned it to another ultrarunner in January and he said, "LOST 118 is the same weekend--why don't you do that instead?" Great
idea! Why run 26.2 when you can run 118? I emailed the RD, Scott, and offered up my barely 5 foot tall, 100 pound, 83 year old mother as a race volunteer--this might be the most creative way I have combined my runs with family visits yet! Then I got a two-for-one when my sister, Susan, decided she would come out for a visit and volunteer also. I was thrilled because neither of them had ever been at one of my ultras. They weren't sure what they were in for but I am happy to report that they both had a great time manning the Moore Haven aid station along with Pat Melton and enjoyed socializing with everyone. Susan ran about 30 feet with me coming into their aid station to prove that she CAN. Susan and Mom saw me finish the race on Karen's birthday :). Susan said, "I actually got to SEE you run! I never saw you RUN before!" My mother was overhead saying, "She could have run the Sarasota Marathon 2 miles from my house, but nooooo..."

LOST 118 is a flat course on top of a flood-control dike about 30 feet high consisting of roughly 50/50 asphalt/jeep trail around Lake Okeechobee with about 5 bypasses at the intersecting canals. The lake looks like no "lake" I have ever seen before. Someone who had done the race said it was impossible to get lost because you know you have to stay by the water--what water? Early in the race, I couldn't see anything but trees and swampy vegetation where there was supposed to be a lake on my left. Rumor has it that this lake can be seen from outer space and I had trouble seeing it from 50 feet away sometimes--hmmm. Scads of alligators was another thing I heard--I did not see even ONE alligator up close and personal. My active imagination and sleep-deprived mind conjured up many during the night and I was looking so hard with my trusty Fenix that I "believed" I might have seen some very large ones. But the truth is, I can't say for sure that I saw even one alligator despite spending many hours in their chomping--I mean stomping grounds. I heard rumor of a 13 footer sunning itself on the bank, but I was not in the right place at the right time. Yen asked during the night, "Can that big alligator we saw walk up the hill to the path?" After my visions of "scads of alligators" watching with their periscope eyes as the runners passed on the levee and patiently waiting for one to trip, I was sorely disappointed. I went from fearing an alligator attack to obsessively searching for the beasts during the long night. You always want what you can't have... :) Thanks to that tall guy I was running with at the time who continually redirected me and reminded me about "relentless forward motion" and that I had a plane to catch that I would miss while I "relentlessly" pursued an alligator sighting.

My husband was willing to come along to crew, as always, but I wanted to challenge myself by being more self-sufficient, so I told him he could stay home and guard the house :). I was a little fearful of running alone at night, but Scott reassured me that someone would always be near. As it turned out, I ran with someone most of the time except for the last 20 miles and everyone who was crewing went above and beyond to do everything they could for all the runners. Sandy Melton and Steve Strait, who were Mike Melton's crew, offered to help me. They did an outstanding job and I can't imagine how I would have done it without them. Also there was John Turner, a previous winner of LOST, and his wife, Sandra, who flew in from Canada to help out at the evewould have entered the event but he was just nt. John released to run again after the fracture healed. If you don't remember the injury, here is a haiku hint: "ice and snow, a fall and pop -"

Sue Anger, Dante, another former LOST winner, and many others cheered us on. Sue was crewing for Jim Sullivan but she was often there with whatever I was thinking I needed at that moment. She EVEN remembered her binoculars so that she could see what I was doing on the path when I thought no one was looking :). RD Scott and Stuart G. were often around as well. I came to this race without crew thinking I would have to be self-sufficient, no whining, and I end up getting pampered! I hoped to finish around 26 hours and instead it was 29+ but I was happy with that and also humbled which is never a bad thing. I love the way the race was no frills, one big happy family, with so few starters, only 16 this year. I met Alisa briefly the night before the race and heard that she had won the Keys 100 last year. She was crewed by none other than Phil Rosenstein who I didn't know would be there. Stu G. rode his bike with a mobile aid station later in the race. At about mile 95 he was waiting on the path and asked if I needed anything. I said I didn't, not sure of the exact words, because I was pretty tired by then. It made me perk up just to see him out there and I was thinking as I ran on that he didn't know it but he DID give me something to keep me going...

There were also other family members out there--Tina, mother and crew of a runner from Chicago; wife and 9 and 11 year old daughters crewed Eric who had never run more than 50 miles before; a local boy scout troop manned the Port Mayaca aid station--one of the scouts had a father running the race; Yen's husband, Peter, paced her through the night with his red flashing light. I asked Yen how she and Peter met--she responded that it was at a track club and he was the only other member who ran ultras--she was intrigued, the rest is history. Family members are often mentioned on the list and though some may worry about us and wonder why we run these distances, when it comes right down to it, many of them are there for us,supporting us in the sport we love. I asked one runner's mother if she ever asks him why he runs so far, and her response was, "No, because I already
know--he LOVES it!"

I LOVED this event and had the time of my life. From the unique distance of 118 miles to the styrofoam coolers sitting in the middle of nowhere with a checklist on the inside of the cover to write down your time of arrival, to the Badwater like stretches where you could see for miles but never seemed to quite get there, and the night guards in the construction zones who were supposed to divert us around but instead cheered us on, to the heat, fog, and wind, the stars at night, the reclining moon, the canals and the bass boats, the rare biker or walker, the young runner whose mouth dropped when I
excitedly told him I had been running since the day before, to the swampy lake, the majestic egrets, the occasional snake, the exceptional company of the other runners, to the TLC and support of all the crew out there, the effort that Scott puts into this event... I did miss my plane because my mother got LOST on the way to the airport, but I got on a later plane to Detroit on the way back to Chicago and I had never been in that airport--check! This is one event I definitely plan to do again--I will find the elusive 'gators next year.

Juli
The "gator stalker "

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