LOST 118
On February 24, I participated in the LOST 118, which is a race that follows the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail in south central Florida. Lake Okeechobee is the second largest lake in the contiguous US and levee/dike the trail runs on top of is the creation of the US Army Corp of Engineers. The race starts in Clewiston and each year runs clockwise or counterclockwise (though I heard this may change next year and it may only go one direction going forward). This is the first year where there is no active construction on the trail, so it is essentially 100% finished and there are no detours except around two of the dams.
The race offers a couple different options: solo, relay, and RPC (Runner Propelled Cart – aka, stroller). As I hate relying on crew (there is only one aid station and crew is mandatory), I considered the RPC division, but abandoned it after Susan and Kevin graciously offered to crew me.
After the loooong drive to Clewiston, we hit up the Walmart for some additional supplies and went to packet pickup. I got a nice bag and some cool swag (which apparently I totally spaced getting a photo of) including a cute lil LOST 118 sticker.
The best/worst discovery in the AirBNB was the previous history in the youtube search history. The living room searched “Dukes of Hazzard full movie” and “Crocodile Dundee.” In the main bedroom (which I decided to sleep in), the person prior had searched for “videos xxx.” I went to sleep knowing that someone definitely jerked off in the bed I was sleeping in. 😐
Our alarms went off at 4am and we did yoga. At that point, we had all been on a nearly 2 month yoga streak (Susan’s being much, much longer – maybe a year - than mine and Kevin’s), so we moved the couches around and did yoga together, which was so fun.
We had a big breakfast, but that didn’t stop me from having an amazing pastry that the RD brought to the start. He went over some general things, including the aggressive cutoff at the 100k point, and that our day would end if we did not make it there within 16 hours. This put a large bit of fear in me because my 100k PR is 13:45*, so I would be running scared.
*Granted, that 100k PR was at the Ks of Convenience where I was required to stop at 4 stores and buy something every 20-mile loop, so it probably could be faster? We shall see in August!
I bid farewell to my crew since they would be going to chill at the Airbnb for a few hours – I planned my first stop with them being around the 17-mile point – though the estimated mileage was slightly off so it ended up being around mile 20. I knew from the jump that I was running too fast, but I felt good, wanted to take advantage of the cooler weather, and was feeling the pressure of the cutoff.
I typically don’t do ANY music or podcasts or external distractions until at least the halfway point of any race, but when I saw Susan and Kevin at mile 20, I was ready for my headphones. Although it was beautiful out, I was already sick of being in my own head and only seeing lake on one side and sugarcane fields on the other.
I finished the first 50k of the race in about 6.5 hours, leaving 9.5 hours to get the next 50k in. Susan and Kevin met me around 2-3pm with some McDonalds chicken nugs and fries. I had a few bites before they kicked me out and I took my food down the trail.
At 4pm I finally saw my first critter of the race – an armadillo crossing the trail! I took a picture and then a few hours later as it was starting to get dark I saw what I thought was an otter (why I thought that, I don’t know), but ended up being a cute racoon!
The halfway cutoff point and aid station was around 64 miles and I got there at the 15-hour point. One thing about the cutoff is this – the race has a total cutoff time of 38 hours. This means that runners have to do the first half in 16 hours and then have 22 hours for the second half. Yes, I realize that no one gets faster later into a race, but that is still an aggressive cut off. Last year, it was run the opposite way so the “halfway” cutoff was around 56(ish?) miles since the course is not actually 118 miles since the construction was completed, it is just over 113 miles. The cutoff took out many great runners with amazing ultra resumes and 100-mile finishes.
As I came into the aid station, I was told there were real bathrooms (!!!) and they were heated (!!!). We have been having an exceptionally cold year in Florida. I was hoping that the end of February would be seeing some warm weather (we had smatterings of days in the 80s, but that didn’t hold), but it was COLD and it was necessary to wear long sleeves and a buff at night. The amazing part was that because of the full moon, there was absolutely no need to wear a headlamp. The moon was so bright it cast shadows on us!
The next planned stop after the aid station was when I had decided I would like pacing. We were trying something new in that Susan and Kevin would switch off pacing and resting. I think the longest leg that Kevin did was 10 miles and the longest that Susan did was 8 miles between the stops; the each paced three times.
Mile 78 had a bit of drama to it and was my loooooongest mile. I spent about an hour and 10 minutes with my crew. I was exhausted and cold and I made the mistake of getting in the car because Susan wasn’t ready yet. I instantly started shivering and we cranked up the heat and I put my feet up while eating my ramen and drinking some coffee.
A guy then came up to us and asked for us to call the race director and tell him to tell another guy where he was. Apparently the guy was in the relay and his crew wasn’t there. They were supposed to meet him about 10 miles ago as his leg was only 4 miles, but when he finished the 4, they weren’t there so he took it upon himself to keep going and meet them at the next stop. But he didn’t tell them that since he didn’t have a phone with him. We called the RD, who was understandably mad at him as he had 4 sheriff deputies out looking for the guy on the trail since he hadn’t met up with his crew and they were super worried.
All that to say, I spent waaaaaay too long there. I definitely had the show up and blow up thing going on.
When the sun rose and I was getting close to the 100-mile mark, Kevin called Joe and we video chatted with him for a few minutes. It was a really great pick-me-up! My 100mi time was at 27 hours, which was 30 minutes over my 100mi PR back in 2021 (though I could have gone faster; I always have way too much fun at the aid stations at Badger!).
I told Susan and Kevin that I wanted to run until I hit that halfway point and then switch to a 4 min run, 1 min walk. Welllll, that didn’t happen. Susan and I did end up doing it on a stretch mid-morning, but without my pacers forcing me to run, I didn’t really take it upon myself to initiate it. I really liked Susan’s gym boss interval timer that she used. It wasn’t her telling me to run, it was this device that I could curse at! I may need to get something like this for my next 100 since I found it very motivating.
Oh! I will say this about the timer – Susan accidentally programmed it wrong, so for maybe 20-30 minutes we were doing a 4min/30sec instead before she noticed it because we were bitching that one minute was going by way too fast, lol. That’s how I got some 13-14 min miles between 94-99.
In the last half-marathon, I FINALLY got to see some alligators! Kevin and I spent time alligator spotting and taking lots of pics. They were also doing a controlled burn of sugarcane in one area and I saw the biggest, tallest flames ever. Kevin called to video chat one of his friends from when he worked at the fire department so he could show him the fire.
I switched off to Susan for the final stretch and she got to see several gators as well. With about 3 miles to go, I FINALLY turned on music. Why do I always forget that music helps? I put on my 100mi playlist that has a lot of great power hiking songs and I got to jam out to that.
After being able to see the finish for miles and miles and miles, we finally got there and I crossed the line at 31:25:28. I spent a few weeks completely disappointed in myself for my performance, but really, I should be proud that I was able to complete the event. I came in 8 out of 11 and was the 2nd of 3 women.
So would I recommend this race to anyone? NO, but also YES. I think it is a really neat race, but I just didn’t have a ton of fun. Weirdly enough I didn’t have any highs or any lows, it just was. I think that’s a first for me. It could be due to listening to a book for about 8 hours whereas I would have normally spent a lot more time in my head? There are so many things I keep thinking and re-thinking regarding this race, but overall it was worth it and I’m proud that I was able to complete LOST.
None of it would have been possible without my incredible crew of Susan and Kevin pushing me forward, handing me twinkies, filling my bladder, making me ramen, and being amazing humans. Thank you guys!
