MLK 5 miler - NEVER AGAIN

After last years debacle where the 10k turned into a 5 miler because none of the volunteers had a clue, Heather and I thought what the hell, lets give it a shot this year.  They can't F it up again, can they.  Hmmm...so we get there to find out the bathrooms are locked for the winter...ooops, yea, that is going to suck...ok, no big deal, you only have to go about .5 miles up the road to shit or piss...ok, so we find out that they are not going to time the race...to me, that is bullshit...how hard is it to time a race with 50 people in it.  Me, I like competition and racing hard...I know I am not faster than most good runners but love to push myself...if I wanted to run Wakefield again for fun, I would of stayed home and just done a 10 miler at Battlefield.  Ok, so I warm up, hit the can twice and then we line up.

  He says go and I go out at a 7:40 min pace, comfortable given the trail is flat and frozen...I look back and no one is behind me...ok, I keep moving and get about 2.5 miles in and I am still in first...not like it means much since there is no time but a few of us are running hard...So I am following the orange flags they have setup...SOOO, I get to an area where there are no flags, it just ends...so I stop, about a minute later, the guy behind me catches up and says he is lost too...so now we are both lost...so we rerun about a mile of the trail back and ask one of the volunteers and he does not know how we got lost....anyhey, we both jog it back in and I vow never to do this run again...its fine if you are bored but this is the second year in a row where people get lost in these woods...maybe it was my fault and I wasn't paying attention...doubt it but ok..either way, pick another race next year on Martin Luther king day....<SIGH>...and to boot, my 2nd metatarsal of my left foot started aching around mile 2..most likely from the pounding of the frozen trail and the fact that I had been picking up more miles in the woods lately...