Ultra Race Director Acknowledges Course May Have Been Poorly Marked
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The event director of a California ultramarathon acknowledged Sunday that the 100-miler’s course was “perhaps” not adequately marked, Dumb Runner has learned.
The concession comes nearly a year after 14 runners went missing while running the race, and just days after the skeletal remains of one of them were found in a remote stretch of desert miles from the race route.
“Could our course have been marked a bit more clearly?” said Leonard H. McCoy, founder and director of the DeForest 100. “Perhaps.”
“But, you know, hindsight is 20/20,” he added.
McCoy had faced mounting pressure to address the situation last week, after a hiker discovered a human skeleton about 7 miles from the ultra’s route. Using dental records and Strava data, authorities identified the victim as James Tiberius, 33, a formerly avid runner from Riverside, Iowa, who disappeared after starting last year’s DeForest 100.
The skeleton’s Garmin watch, still on its wrist, was also dead.
McCoy came in for heavy criticism after last year’s race, partly for a late start and for having too few aid stations, poorly stocked, but mostly for the course itself, which many described as confusing and lacking in adequate signage. Of 210 runners who started the race, more than half reported going off course at least once, and 14 not only didn’t finish but were never seen again.
Now that one of those 14 has been found, the families of the remaining missing runners are hopeful that they’ll soon get closure as well.
“It’s hard, not knowing,” said the brother of one of those missing athletes, who requested anonymity. “We just want to put all this behind us.”
Asked whether he thought Tiberius perished from dehydration or some other cause, McCoy got testy.
“Dammit, I’m a race director,” he said. “Not a doctor!”
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