Sunday, May 18, 2008 found me heading back up yet again to Cecil County, Maryland for another race: The Paws for Life/Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue May Day 5K. This race took place at this farm with some well-paved and relatively safe trails in Chesapeake City, MD. It looked appealing because about a year ago I had driven through a bit of Chesapeake City and I thought it was scenic, so when I came upon mention of this event on Active.Com, I figured it may be something to consider. My friend Joe from the Maryland Eastern Shore (who ran with me earlier in May at the McCready Health Services Foundation Founder's Day 8K in Crisfield (Somerset County), MD said he was planning on coming to the Baltimore area for the Preakness horse races. We were talking about doing the May Day 5K possibly and that sort of got me in the mindset to do it for fun, even though this was the week I started back with running on my own. However, his plans to come visit and go to Preakness did not work out. Yet, I still had it in my mind to go to the race, and I figured that since I was also available to do it, I'd give it a shot.
So I was once more on the road again towards cecil County. The previous week I had done a 4K in the same county (the Run for Reading 4K in North East), and you can read the previous blog entry for more details on how I accidentally cut that course a bit short... Little did I know that at this race I would perhaps... compensate for that.
I got to the race area which looked like a rural farm area along a long straight country dirt road with trees on both sides, almost as if I were driving down an aisle towards some huge mansion or castle (and we probably covered a little over a quarter-mile's worth of that long flat and straight road in the last part of the race). The farm building and stables seemed to really be the only signs of human activity out there in rural Chesapeake City. I was glad to see a fair turn out of other participants and people staffing the race. In fact, I saw one guy I knew (who had helped design the course), and the last time I had seen him was over a year ago back in early April of 2007. He helped direct this informal trail run up in Fair Hill (Cecil County), MD. It was the Fool's Frolic 22K (I ran the shorter 5-6 mile route that they had there). It was the first Cecil County running event I had ever run and it was after that race that helped me make a decision to try and run in a running event in every county of Maryland before 2007 ended... And that's sorta what got me started on these blogs. It was great to see him and catch up with him. We had kept in touch via e-mails after that trail run and he seemed interested and supportive of my Maryland-wide running quest, and it was just nice to see him again.
I felt all right warming up. I was surprised to feel decent, because yesterday I had gone running/walking with my friend, Corrie (that young lady I met when I was volunteering at the Bryant Woods Montessori Backyard Dash 5K Run in Columbia in late April). We went a lot further than expected. We went around Lake Elkhorn Howard County and then took the bike paths all the way out to the Jessup-Savage area of Howard County, and then all the way to the Savage Mill (which is a quaint antique mall for the most part in Savage, MD). We walked around the Savage Mill a bit and then retraced our steps (minus taking another lap around Lake Elkhorn). We probably ended up covering about eight-to-nine miles, and a large majority of it was walking and talking. I was fine with it; it was great weather, great company, and great conversations. Just walking that distance is a good enough work out for me on most days, haha!
The race started on that long dirt road I described and then quickly made a left turn into some shaded trails where a majority of the race course was. I did not feel that tired or fatigued at all like I did a little bit the previous day after the long run/walk Corrie and I did. In fact, just around when we made that first left turn, I boldly moved into the lead and I felt great and put on a bit of a surge to extend that lead. I felt good running in the shade along the soft and fairly non-treacherous trail. I knew that the coordinator who spoke course instructions before the race started said that there was to be another turn coming up before going into the woods (at least that's what I thought), and to follow the markings. So when I came to a marker, I thought I saw it pointing down a trail to the right, so I took that, thinking that it looked like a more obvious direction for the course to go. I shot down the slight constant decline of the dirt road/path that I was on. I was away from the shade of the trees with the tree line to my left and a small open field to my right. I also must have really put on a solid lead, because I did not hear anyone following me.
I got close to the river towards the bottom of the hill, expecting to see a marker to tell me to turn left back into the woods, but I did not see anything at all except for some abandoned log cabin/small house by the river side and a dirt driveway in front of it (well at least I did not think anyone was home). I began to get worried and ran around in a circle around the driveway looking for some course markings or signs of the race, but I did not find any. I looked behind me and saw no one coming, and then I saw the river and I thought I had heard mention of running along a river or something in the instructions. Then, it occurred to me that after seeing that marker when I made a right turn onto this road, that I had not seen any markers on my way down towards the river/creek (of course, it was hard to think clearly or see clearly when running that hard). Either way, I was pretty sure my worry was validated:
I had made a wrong turn! Yikes!
I've heard that phrase a lot about pride coming before the fall, but even though I was not that prideful when I took the early lead in the race, had I stayed behind someone for longer, I probably would not have made the wrong turn.
I did not dally once I realized this and ran back the way I came, uphill this time. Several minutes later I made it back to the shaded trail, which I realized I should have stayed on and looked at the course marker more closely, realizing that it did in fact point straight ahead into the woods versus the dirt road leading out of the woods. Frustrated at myself for messing up big time in following the race course directions, I felt a strong surge of adrenaline help power me through the trails. Now I'm usually a bit apprehensive about running trails, but these seemed well-paved and I did not want to slow up; I wanted to compensate for taking myself almost ten minutes-worth off of the course.
About midway through on my "dash" through the woods, I looked at my watch and I think I remember it was nearing the upper teens. I knew I still had a ways to go to complete the intended five-kilometer course, even though I was probably getting close to finishing 5 kilometers worth of running anyway... It just was not on the proper course... DoWT!!! (in a Homer Simpson kinda tone).
I figured from this point it would probably be more of a realistic goal to try and finish the race in under thirty minutes. With that in mind I tried to keep up the solid pace. When I came to a small uphill that led to a clearing I ran out into the clearing but soon realized that htere were no markers nearby. Then I looked further ahead and saw runners running across the far end of the meadow from the woods on the right.
"GRRR! Mr. Wood you've done it again!"
My second wrong turn on the course probably cost me at least the better part of a minute, and I wasted no time in getting back to that small hill and looking at the marker closely, angled off to the left and continued to follow the creek/river to my right. Eventually I was clear of the woods and I ran through the fields, catching up to about two or three other runners. Before I knew it, I made a left turn onto the long flat finishing stretch on the dirt road with columns of trees on both sides that I drove down to get to the race site at Mitton Farm. Even though this road was really flat, it seemed so long. I would say I kicked for a little over a quarter-mile's worth towards a finish line that seemed so close yet was further than it looked down the straight road. Here, I think I really felt the exhaustion of having gone further than intended and having pushed the pace, but fortunately I was almost through the course.
I dashed across the finish line in 29:18 and doubled over to catch my breath. I could still feel some adrenaline from frustration at having gone the wrong way twice, and some from almost catching a young lady in front of me near the finish. 29:18... Now I would say that going at the pace I was going at, that I had covered at least 4.5 miles and that I had probably run about 9-10 minutes extra in going the wrong way twice. Ah well, at least it gives me extra motivation to come back to this race next year (I do believe they said they would try and have it next year), or at least some time in the future, and see how I would do going the correct way and HOPEFULLY being in much better shape having done more consistent running. I was pleased that the long run/walk that Corrie and I did the previous day did not at all seem to wear down on me while running this race. In fact, I think it served as a solid confidence booster 'cause I knew I could run/walk for about 8-9 miles and still feel all right enough to do a 5K the next day. I was also blessed that I earned second place in the 20-29 age-group division (and I think age group awards only went two deep in each age-group division). The bottom photo is of me with my medal for placing second in my age-group. Also worth noting in the right photo above is that you can see my car (it's the gold Saturn on the left from where the woman is standing). The top two photos I think either came from the Paws for Life website (http://www.pawsforlife.org) or the Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue website (http://www.midatlantichorserescue.org). I am grateful that I did this race. Chesapeake City is a beautiful place in its more suburban and urban areas right by the water, but the rural area where this event was is just as scenic. I'm glad I at least got to see more of it than what I bargained for ;)-
Later that afternoon, I actually felt motivated to do a Howard County Striders Weekly Series race (they often have them on Sunday afternoons during the fall, winter, and spring). They had a two-miler and a 10-kilometer at Thunder Hill Elementary School in Columbia, MD. I decided to do the two-mile at a chill pace, and that is what I did. I ended up doing the fairly hilly course in 13:36 (which was faster than my two-mile split from the 5K earlier that morning because I had gone the wrong way in that 5K). This race was the fifth in the Striders' Spring Series called the "Vernal Velocity". Soon after the race, I still felt all right and I headed off to church.
All in all, it was a pretty nice day. Glad I did not get lost and that the Good Lord kept me safe, helped me see more fo the rural forestry of Cecil County, and gain some confidence in knowing that I could run longer than I intended too considering I had not been running that much. Thank you for reading up on my second adventure and week-in-a-row of getting lost at a Cecil County race. The previous week I ran accidentally cut the Run for Reading 4K course short, and then I ran longer on this one, so maybe it all evens out :) All right, thank you again for stopping by!
Stay tuned for next weekend's update. I'm sure as some of you have heard, I attempted to run a race/running event in all three counties of Delaware (Kent, New Castle, and Sussex Counties) within a week starting on Memorial Day weekend. I'll try and let you know how it went down. Take it easy!
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