A man who ran the Filthy 5K Mud Run in 2010 and wound up partially paralyzed when he landed awkwardly in a man-made mud pit near the finish line on Brown's Island along the Richmond riverfront has sued the race organizers for $30 million.
The suit filed by Robert A. Fecteau II in Richmond Circuit Court said the shallow mud pit, a 30-foot-long obstacle that requires competitors to crawl through it within sight of the end of the course, was created with "negligence, reckless disregard, and/or gross negligence" and was a direct cause of his injuries.
The suit said Fecteau, a veteran runner whose accomplishments in the months before the Filthy 5K included finishing the 26.2-mile Marine Corps Marathon in October 2008, was in a "fatigued, weakened, exhausted" state as he approached the end of the 3.1-mile Richmond race on May 14, 2010. The suit said he jammed his hands and arms as he went down to crawl through the pit, "thereby causing damage to his spinal cord, paralysis, and permanent injuries to his C4, C5 and C6 vertebrae."
Richmond attorney John C. Shea said the accident left his client partially paralyzed from the chest down, with minimal use of his arms.
"He is not ventilator-dependent," Shea said. "He is able to breathe on his own."
Fecteau's suit, originally filed in Arlington County but pulled and refiled in Richmond last week, named as defendants the Richmond Sports Backers as well as Venture Richmond Inc. and the Road Runners Club of America Inc., which helped in presenting the race.
Individual defendants are Jon Lugbill, the executive director of the Sports Backers, and John A. Raigins, event operations manager for the group, which stages the race each spring as part of its Riverrock outdoors festival along the James River downtown.
Fecteau seeks a jury trial and $30 million in damages. He also wants the defendants to pay his legal costs.
Stanley P. Wellman, the Henrico County attorney representing all of the defendants, said the suit lacks merit.
"The plaintiff himself described this as a freak accident," Wellman said. "Jon and the Sports Backers have a long, proud history of conducting events safely. The Sports Backers takes the safety of the participants of its races very seriously."
Fecteau, a resident of the Prince William County community of Triangle, is a trained medical technologist who can no longer work, Shea said.
When he competed in the Mud Run, he used the race number of a friend, Aubrey Anthony. She had filled out the race registration paperwork, which includes a liability waiver that is standard for competitors in road races, and paid the race fee but was unable to run. She gave her bib to Fecteau.
Fecteau's suit acknowledged that he never filled out the registration paperwork.
The suit also said he asked race officials if he needed to re-register as himself but was told he did not.
Wellman said his clients dispute that allegation.
"That's absolutely false and not supported by any evidence," he said.
Shea said that even if Fecteau had signed a form absolving the race organizers of liability, such a waiver would not stand up in Virginia courts.
"It's our position that those waivers are not effective," he said. "You can't waive away your responsibility."
Results from the 2010 Filthy 5K indicate there were 1,294 finishers in an event that took competitors over a course featuring unpaved pathways on Belle Isle and Brown's Island, as well as paved areas along the north bank of the James River. The course had three mud pits, including the one at the end. Authorities said no other injuries were reported at any of the pits.
The 2011 race had mud pits as well, and that will again be the case at this year's event, scheduled for Friday evening as part of the Riverrock festivities.
Wellman challenged the allegation in the suit that the mud pit where Fecteau was injured had been created in a negligent manner.
"Upwards of 1,500 runners have gone into that mud pit in each of the years the race has been staged," he said, "and all of them have come out unscathed save for one."
In addition to finishing the Marine Corps Marathon in the fall of 2008, Fecteau completed several 5K races in 2009, including one in April of that year in Alexandria where he averaged 9:49 per mile, placing him among the top finishers in the men's 50-54 age group.
"He was an active, fit guy, which makes it more tragic for him," Shea said.