Have you ever run through a swamp, just for fun? I have. And it was fun.

This past Saturday after breakfast, myself and five other guys drove west of Peterborough to the Cavan Swamp, got into teams of two, and raced from Mount Pleasant Rd. to Hayes Line, through the swamp. The first 20 feet consisted of a 3 foot deep, 15 foot wide stream, followed by a hundred meters or so of bush/bog. About 20 feet past the stream in the bush, I nearly jumped on a deer. I think I woke it up. It took off rather quickly. It new the terrain and where it was going.
I didn't.
I had a route planned out for me and my partner, but it turned out to be the same route as another team, who had about a 10 second lead on us. So, we decided to try and go around them, so as to not follow them the whole way. The problem with that is that we veered off course a bit. It's surprisingly easy to get turned around in a swamp/forest on a cloudy day, with no sun as a reference point. Just ask one team - who found themselves emerging from the swamp onto the road, assuming victory, only to discover it was the same road they started on. We didn't do quite that bad. However, we did get quite far off course. Embarrassingly so. At one point I remember saying to my partner, "this has stopped being a race, it's all about survival now." There was some truth to that statement.
According to the guys waiting for us on the road, when we emerged from the bush, I looked like a moose with a giant swarm of horse flies chasing me. I was oblivious to them.