Dances With Dirt

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What started as a day with bright promise turned into a gruesome descent into Hell for the Wanderers team at the Dances With Dirt 100-mile relay race in September.

With the race half completed, the Wanderers appeared well on their way to the top finish which has so often been promised and so rarely delivered.

Wanderers strongman Dean Bredenbech once more got the Wanderers off to a flying start with a top 20 finish in the opening leg. Stalwart Tom Humphrey and newcomer Susan Branson solidified the Wanderers position. Bernie Brosnan in a performance which later earned him Wanderer Rookie of the Year 2001 award helped push the Wanderers into the top half of the field.

The brutal Dances with Dirt trail course calls for two trips though Hell, Michigan, and the Wanderers had already passed through the town once without incident.

Hopes indeed were high when Dan Gordon embarked on the fateful ninth leg of the race. However, once Gordon disappeared down the trail, he was not seen or heard from him for two hours in what has become the most enduring mystery in Wissahickon Wanderer annals. What is known is that after eight miles of hard running, he ended up four miles further from his destination than when he started.

"Running is not exactly rocket science," said Wanderers race director Tom Humphrey. "Its simply a matter of getting from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. Well, Dan did not get to Point B. In fact, he did not get to Points C,E, or F either, but ended up in downtown Hell."

For a few brief moments, Gordon earned the Wanderers a respect and admiration they are so far unaccustomed to. As he trundled into the 14th and last transfer checkpoint, onlookers and staff thought he was the lead runner in the field of 244 teams, and exhorted him on. Awe quickly turned to bewilderment and then to dismay as it became apparent that Gordon had overlooked legs 10,11, 12, 13 as well as 14 and didn't have a clue where he was. In all, the Wanderers lost about an hour and a half from Gordon's unauthorized trip to Hell.

Wanderer runners tried desperately to claw their way back to respectability in the final legs, but the damage was already done. The Wanderers finished 231 out of 244 teams.

Overlooked in the debacle was a very strong opening Wanderer performance by Susan Branson. She was assigned the brutal 7th leg which requires crossing a bog as well as a stream. She attacked the leg like a swamp rat. Dean Bredenbech could only be described as a monster out on the course and excelled in all three of his legs. Bernie Brosnan ran three powerful legs and is expected to challenge Bredenbech in the future for the title of Wanderer's strongman.

It was hard for Wanderers race director Humphrey to disguise his disappointment and frustration at the end of the race.

"Maybe we should just get out of the running business altogether, and convert the Wanderers into a drinking club," he said. "Or perhaps, we should just concentrate on sports management and let other people, possibly some Kenyans, do the running for us."

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