This one was a bit of a disaster. Seriously, I am beginning to wonder about the decline of my mental faculties. This is the second time in the past few months where I have gone off course and run farther than I should have. And this time the race was right in my backyard. Or front yard, to be more exact. The point where I turned the wrong way is about a tenth of a mile from my house.
I started writing this the day of the race and then I kinda forgot about it, so I guess I'll finish it now. So anyway, I expected to be faster. I was lighter. I was stronger. It is my home course.
It started off okay. But somehow at about the one mile point, where you are supposed to turn left and then make a right to get on the Burr Oak Trail, I stupidly followed some other confused people and made a right turn through the yellow caution tape (I know! Stupid!) and ran a bit down the Ridge Trail (which you are supposed to run up after the Burr Oak Trail.
I realized my mistake fairly quickly, but instead of fixing it properly by just going back to the turn and going the right way, I instead retraced my steps even farther, ultimately adding possibly an entire mile onto my race. And I took a couple other people with me on this.
Other people, the ones who ran down the Ridge Trail, had a different experience. They cut the course. One of these was Cyndi K., who still accepted an age-graded award (I would not have!).
So I was pretty bummed about this, and I wonder how fast I would have been if I had not screwed up. My time was about 3 1/2 minutes slower than last year, and I was 24 of 59 women (vs. 18 of 42 last year), and 109 of 161 runners (vs. 78 of 116 last year). I estimate that I probably would have finished in about the same position (18th) if I had not gone off course.
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