Round the bend

Somewhere past “runner’s high,” the hallucinations kick in.

“You get into this dreamy state where you’re really sleep-deprived,” says Greg Minter of Brentwood, a two-time survivor of the brutal 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon, now underway from the lowest point in Death Valley to the base of Mt. Whitney.

According to a small University of Texas-El Paso study, roughly 30% of Badwater competitors hallucinate. The likely culprits? Dehydration, exhaustion and exposure to searing temperatures.

Researchers also attributed some visions to “conning behavior,” which they defined as the runners’ post-race urge to spin tales.

Here is a sampling of online recollections of Badwater head trips:

The first hallucination was a clump of bushes that twisted into a group of three tigers eyeing me from the side of the road. These were quickly followed by a huge stack of giant Lincoln Logs. The hallucinations continued on and off that night: a giant white high-top tennis shoe, desks and chairs stacked bonfire-fashion into a huge pyre, and a road sign malevolently transformed into a guillotine (2001).

-- Greg Minter

A spaceship that had smashed into the mountain. Around the spaceship were these tiny aliens. As I neared the crash, it turned out to be a large overhanging rock, and the aliens were small trees (1991). A black open-top touring car with people wearing old-fashioned clothes (1994). At Mile 80, I was followed by the devil.... Each time I turned around to look for him, he would dodge behind a tree or a rock (2001).

-- Jack Denness

As I started up Whitney Portal Road, the road was covered with the most beautiful design of gray elephants, brown and white rabbits, gray mice, all interwoven with pink candy canes. They persisted to the top of the road and into the finish line. I can still see this pattern in my mind; it would make a beautiful design for a child’s room (2000).

-- Dixie Madsen

The best hallucinations lasted from just before Lone Pine to the finish. The first looked like rubber matting with punched-out shapes, which varied from random geometrical cutouts to letters and numbers, similar to stencils. I was afraid I would trip on these, but then I began running on them and enjoying the cushioning.

Later the rubber mats started alternating with printed PC circuit boards.... These were followed by more geometric shapes in the form of 3-D geometric puzzles. On the way to Whitney Portal, there were 4-by-8 sheets of Kevlar laminates floating one to four feet off the ground (1998).

-- Mike Zeigle

The small hills and sand mounds near the road became Quonset huts that kept track of me and would not go away. Then, as I ran along the white line to keep me going straight, the line became a walking stick. It was painted barber-pole style. The stick did not have a handle as it disappeared behind me into the darkness. It too kept track of me as I progressed (2000).

-- Ruben Cantu