What a screwed up mess this was! Most of the field, including me, took the first wrong turn we could, less than a quarter-mile from the start. A guy I was with figured it out, got me turned around, and we eventually ran the entire course plus about 1.4. We met people going the wrong way so many times, people were taking wrong turns everywhere, the volunteers were little or no help, and the poor race director is asking everyone at the finish how far they ran. My legs didn't feel very good this morning. It was surprisingly cool, which was good, and windy, which wasn't, but the wind was not too much of an impedance. I didn't have the Garmin, or any watch at all, so I just kinda ran by feel once I left the guy who got me back on the right course. If his Garmin gave us the right distance, I ran an average of 8:09 miles. Basically a long MP run. I was running this race to train. I had hoped to run faster, but once we got off/back on course, it turned into an MP run, and I thought I did that part OK. Not too beat up now. I'll take a soak, a nap, and get ready for my date tonight. Where I placed? No telling. I think a bunch of people were lying to the race director about how far they ran, and she's going to hand out prizes based on those works of fiction. Forget it. I got my finishers' medal (a dogtag) and a T-shirt, and that's fine. Hopefully I'll feel pretty good for the date, which is more important to me than this race anyway. | 