River Jam 10k Trail Race
Ok, my apologies here, but I need to
vent on a particular topic.
Last Thursday evening, I jumped in the
last trail race of the White Water Center River Jam 10k Series.
Myself and a couple of other runners had been going back and forth
over the first 2 to 3 miles of the race.
We had just passed by Wedge Loop
exit and were running the long straight path section on
one side of the open field. The trail takes a little detour here
which is about a tenth of mile, but the section is single track and
extremely technical. A lot of people who are just out running bypass
this section and if you do, it cuts down both on the distance and time
because the path is flat and shorter.
As we are coming of this technical
section, there were a stream of runners moving ahead of us. They all
had taken the short cut.
I was feeling a little frustrated at that moment to
say the least. Passing them back on a road is hard, but passing them
on a single track trail is way tougher. Over the next mile or so, I
work my way by some of them but others, I never got a chance to run
down. The combination of the time bonus from the short cut and then
working my way back by these slower runners was just to much of an
advantage for them.
I ended up 10th overall with
a time of 49:35. This placed me 1st in my age group.
Thinking back afterward, did I miss a sign or something. Maybe I was the one that took a wrong turn. Maybe I should
have went straight.
Later, I went back out to check the course again,
yeah, I know. I should just let these things go, but this is not one of those times. When I got
back to the spot in question, yes, signage did indeed direct us to take the side trail.
This means that those runners not only ignored the signs but crossed
the ribbon directing us to take the side trail. The only reasonable explanation that I could think is that the race map showed us bypassing this side trail. But still, they should have followed the mark course. Otherwise, why even mark the course in the first place.
Here's the sad part of any race. All it takes is one
runner ignoring the directions and going off course. Runners behind
him will follow him like little ducklings following their mother. I suspect that this is what happen here, but I will never know for sure.
Oh, well, I did get in a pretty good
workout. At the end of the day, is anything more important.
The Cool Down Runner
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