This is the longest of the stages: 87 km nonstop. At the half-way point, the stage passes through a region of the jungle densely populated by jaguars. Anyone wandering into this region alone at night will likely become a jaguar statistic, so therefore the region between CP4 (Check Point 4) and CP5, ominously named the Dark Zone, is closed at night. Whoever arrives at CP4 after 15:30 will be forced to camp at this checkpoint with armed guards until morning. Like the rest of the competitors, I am hell bent on making it out of the Dark Zone by nightfall.
The day starts with a 4:30 am water crossing (photo at right). It is still dark out. While refreshing, this early morning swim ensures that we start our 87 km trek with damaged feet.
I am really pushing to get to the Dark Zone before dark, and while climbing a 30 degree incline, thinking about nothing except the pain from my heel blisters. I notice a few wasps hovering around my feet.
No big deal. It happens all the time. I ignore the wasps and they ignore me. Suddenly I see 5-6 wasps around my legs, and then 10 to 20 wasps angrily circling my body, and then dozens and dozens of wasps encircling me with the collective buzz of a kamikaze attack. Panic sets in.
I flail my hands around my head to protect my face and neck and catapult myself up the incline. In the scramble I drop a water bottle. Dehydrate or get stung, which is the worse death I think to myself? I lurch back a few steps for my water bottle. BAM! BAM! I’m stung on each arm. I sprint back uphill, waving my hands and screaming like a little girl. BAM! BAM! Two more stings on the right leg. I set a land speed record for the uphill 200 meter dash. The cloud of wasps gradually disperses and the silence returns. I pull out 4 stingers and rinse my wounds. The intense burning of the sting sets in and the venom bloats my limbs. At the next CP I’m told that everyone got stung at that point in the trail. “Robert must have trained those wasps,” I think to myself. At least this new pain takes my mind off the heel blisters.
An hour after the wasp attack, I hook up with Ana, JC, and Jay. We match our pace and form a human train traversing single file through the dense jungle. We have one goal: to get to the Dark Zone before 15:30. We are the Dark Zone Express and we stop for nothing or no one. Finally after hours of agonizing climbs, descents, swamps and the popular wasp attack, we reach the entrance to the Dark Zone. It’s 12:39.
The guards confirm that jaguars were sighted in the early morning hours. A quick fill of water, a few salt tablets, the saying of a short prayer, and we’re off to test our luck in the Dark Zone.
As I power-walk through the Dark Zone, the sounds of breaking branches and falling leaves cause me to turn my head expecting to see a jaguar. No such luck. None of the competitors see a jaguar, even though at this point in the race, we are all starting to smell like one. Jay and I emerge from the Dark Zone at 16:10.
Entering the Dark Zone.
We’re still only half way through the total distance for the day. We eat a meal and change socks. Jay decides to walk it in. I try my luck at running the last 40 km. My dinner of Chicken Gumbo turns into Chicken Jumbo Mumbo. I take an antacid and keep jogging. I want this thing over with.
