Heading in the Right Direction

So a funny thing happened along the way between mile 9 and 10 in the race this morning....

Before getting to that, to recap the last few days.

Thursday, both the boys and girls XC teams each finished 3rd and earned berths to the state championship in Hershey next Saturday.

This is a picture of the girls. The exciting thing is that there is one senior in our top 6. On the boys' side, there was only one senior, too. The makings of a solid foundation for next year!

Friday night, we went to the high school football game--my first I've attended (listened to many online) since I started there five years ago. Both teams were undefeated in the section and our Blue Devils beat the hated rival Panthers from Kari M's school.

Then, on to the race on Saturday. It was a chilly morning (about 35 degrees). Beth came out to offer her support since she's just starting to get back in the swing of things after Kona. My cousin K came out to do the 5k and I was doing the 10-miler. The topography of map my run made it seem not too bad. Not so fast my friend. It was either up or down. No killer hills, just lots of little ones....and the mile uphill from 7 to 8.

There were people at just about every turn, guiding you to head left or right. Until the final turn. Nobody there. You see, as illustrated in the picture below, I THOUGHT the 10 miler was going to finish like the 5k. However, we came out on to Beaver Grade Road where I needed to take a left. I make the right, and start opening it up down the hill (only a half mile to go, right?) when I see two racers who were in front of me coming back up the hill.

I think, "uh oh." As I'm approaching them I say, "Is this the wrong way?" They say, "We think." So, I throw it into reverse and try to follow them in. All told, probably about an extra half mile. Oh well. It didn't really affect the finishing places, just some of our times. It was crazy that those two guys ended up independently making the same error as me. After the race, I cooled down and went back to see what went wrong. The intersection wasn't marked at all. However, there was NOW a police car guiding the runners to turn right. In the end, 1:07:10 for 10 (and a half) miles, good enough for 6th place. Congrats also to Karen for a 5k win!

Time for a fun week of preparations for the kids for the state XC meet. Countdown to Hershey!