Running Blunder Buries Wanderers at Dances with Dirt Relay

It was business as usual for the Wissahickon Wanderers when they traveled to Hell, Michigan, in early September for the Dances with Dirt 100-mile trail relay. The team finished 231st out of 244 teams.

Tom Humphrey chugs through leg 2.

Wanderers pose for a pre-race team photo when hopes were still running high.

It did not have to be this ugly. In fact, with the race more than half over, the Wanderers were running strong and were poised to finish well up in the first half of the field. Dean Bredenbech put in his trademark strong opening leg finishing in the top 20. Susan Branson and Tom Humphrey hung tough and only conceded places grudgingly. Bernie Brosnan proved to be a real find for the Wanderers grinding down the opposition relentlessly, always with a smile on his face.

But on leg nine, things started to go terribly wrong for the Wanderers. With only a half mile to go on his leg, Dan Gordon seemed to have matters under control, and was even passing some runners when somehow he got turned around. Running full tilt, but now in the opposite direction, Gordon ended up four miles further from his destination than when he started.

Fittingly enough, Gordon ended his personal odyssey in downtown Hell, where for a few brief moments he earned the Wanderers an unaccustomed respect and admiration. As he chugged into the 14th and last transfer checkpoint, onlookers and staff thought he was the lead runner 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 done. Overlooked in the debacle was a very strong opening Wanderer performance by Susan Branson. She was assigned the brutal 7th leg which requires crossing several bogs as well as a stream. She attacked the leg like a swamp rat. Dean Bredenbech put in three monster runs literally devouring the competition. Bernie Brosnan finished off the few scraps that Bredenbech left over with three impressive runs and earned the Wanderer Rookie of the Year honors for 2001.

Team director Humphrey vowed the Wanderers would return but only if Gordon completes six hours of compulsory orienteering.