The Wambaw Swamp Stomp 50-50 has participants running up the Swamp Fox Passage. 50K runners complete a 15.5 mile out and back and 50 mile runners do one 15 mile out and back and then a shorter 10 mile out and back to get 50 miles.
Aid Stations are placed roughly every 5 miles apart. There are three Aid Stations on the course with one BIG aid Station at the Start/Finish Line. At each Aid Station, all solo runners, relay runners are required to check in!
If you finish the event in the time required, you will receive the Swamp Stomp Finisher coin. All participants will receive a pint glass with the Swamp Creature and sponsor logos on it.
Relay Teams: You are responsible for getting your relay team members to and from exchange points (the aid stations
Time Cut Off: 50 mile runners have a 14 hour cut off and 50k runners have a 10 hour cut off to be considered “OFFICIAL” Finishers.
Legend of the Wambaw Swamp Creature: The first reported sighting of the creature was made by Chad Haffa, a 43 year old local, who said he encountered the creature while running on sections of the Swamp Fox Trail in the Francis Marion National Forest the evening of June 29, 2011. According to his account, Haffa stopped on the trail bordering Wambaw Swamp in order to remove a pebble from his shoe. When he was finished putting his shoe back on he reported hearing a thumping noise from behind him and having turned around to see the creature running down the trail towards him.
“I looked back and saw something running down the trail towards me. It was about 25 yards away and I saw red eyes glowing. I ran as fast as I could down the trail until I got to Hwy 41. I slowed a truck down and jumped in the back of it. The creature was still running down the road chasing me! I could see all of him, from the top of his head to his toes – the five big fingers, long black nails and green rough skin. It was strong and angry.”
In the month that followed what has become known as the Haffa sighting there were several further reports of a large lizard like creature, and of unusual scratches and bite marks found on cars parked close to Witherbee Ranger Station and the Wambaw Swamp. Most of these are said to have occurred within a six-mile (10 km) radius of the swamps of Cordesville, SC.
At the time, local law enforcement officials reacted to reports of the Wambaw Swamp Lizard Man with a mixture of concern and skepticism, stating that a sufficient number of sightings had been made by apparently reliable people for them to believe that something tangible was being seen, but also that it was more likely to be a bear than a Lizard Man.
Two weeks after the Haffa sighting the sheriff’s department made several plaster casts of what appeared to be a five-toed footprints – measuring some 18 inches (360 mm) in length – but decided against sending them on to the FBI for further analysis after biologists advised them that they were unclassifiable.[2] According to South Carolina Marine Resources Department spokesperson Jasper Jenkins, the tracks neither matched, nor could be mistaken for, the footprints of any recorded animal. Evans also dismissed the possibility that they could have been made by some form of mutated creature.
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