Last night I was pretty nervous and excited, this was my fist trail race and it was at night so I got to wear my headlamp. Part of me thought it would be better to have registered for the 5k, not the 5 miler but I knew that if I did that I would immediately regret it and wish I had done the 5 miler. In other words, I stuck with the 5 mile part of the race.

DH took a couple pics of me before the race:

  It started at 9 p.m. and I was a bit in the back and we couldn't hear anything they were saying, but I wasn't worried about that. Everything was going real well for the first mile, everything was marked good and there wasn't any confusion. It was around the time we came out in a cornfield and hit two trails and one sign saying 5k..... but no 5 miles so we went the way that didn't have a sign. At that point we didn't think we were lost, by that time I was up with the brave leaders who were trying to find their way through. 

  We hit a dead end just before 1.5 I think, turned around and took this other trail with no tape, or sign. Before long we were pretty sure we were headed in the right direction again, I took up behind the girl that was leading and figured I knew these trails and I knew my way out if nobody else did. It was after a few minutes that we heard girls screaming, it sounded like they had broken their leg or something. It turns out they had gotten lost on a trail and decided to get off the trail and walk through the woods trying to find another trail or someone (excuse me, brave and crazy but thorns and wild animals... no thank you), when we confirmed that they were okay we headed on. It just got confusing from there on..... and the lead girl even asked me if I wanted to lead but I said no because if we were lost I didn't want to be responsible, I knew the ways out but not the race course as there were about a half dozen trails that veer off from the main one and I knew the main one only makes about 1.5-2 miles total

  Just around mile 2.75 we hit a group of 5 milers coming from where we were headed, they were lost and kept going that way. We ran through muck, mud, slosh and other nasty crap I don't want to know about and I am so glad I didn't wash off my trail shoes for this race because it would have been a huge waste of time. I think when we came upon the levee we hit multiple groups that were lost, there was one small 5k group that had already hit 4 miles instead and still didn't know where they were going. Now that I look back on it, it is actually kind of hilarious really and what was even funnier was that we were all more concerned about getting our 5 miles in before finding the finish than we were finding the finish. Eventually I hit the trails and tried to make up 5 miles, winding through and bumping into others who were either lost or making up some mileage, I saw the finish and still had about a quarter of a mile left which really aggravated me but at that point I was annoyed and done with it. After looking at the course map I can see where that quarter went, we missed a turn although I know that trail was completely muddy and just more like water than trail, oh well I guess.

  DH got a few pics, a couple of me before and after because again he isn't familiar with my camera and didn't know how to work the focus.

  Overall, it was a fun run if you don't think about start or finish and I hope they have it again next year and maybe a Halloween run this year because that would easily freak out a lot of people. I won't say I ran 5 because my garmin says 4.7 and so my time was 48:29 for the trail race.

During start and after pics:

 I was in the backish part so I only knew to raise my arms....

 If you look at the guy in the green shirt furthest to the left at the booth table under the tent, that is lee (thekl0wn). He is even better looking up close 

DH wanted to catch the sweat glistening off me. I was tired, and still aggravated dang it. I should have had him take pics of my calves that were covered in mud, but I was still thinking about the course and stuff. On the levee which was basically a huge cut out pathway in the woods all you see are a bunch of headlamps walking, running about and lost and then in the woods you see them and everyone was just hollering out near the end, it was funny and I hope there wasn't any extremely competitive runners out there because they might have been really pissed if they got lost on the course too.

Getting lost is half the fun! Nice work!

What a huge mess.

Congrats on still having fun, even with people going every which way but right.

You mention looking at the course map after the race, and being able to tell where you went wrong.

Did no one think to look at the course map beforehand?

Its easy to blame the race director when things aren't perfect. I like to control as much as I can in my trail races, so I study the course maps and even carry a copy of it sometimes. I blame myself if I get lost.

nice job on the time.

What a great report, very entertaining!  Your description of all the people running around out there, lost and in confusion, made me think of a crazy old-time movie, like Charlie Chaplain or the Marx Brothers, lol, with all kinds of crazy stuff going on.  Sorry about the non-marked routes and so forth, but sounds like you made the best of it, and kept your sense of humor about it all, so good for you!   You now have 'bragging rights' and one heckuva runner story to tell forever.

Thanks you two, I am hooked and hope I see more night-time trail races and I don't think I'll even wait for another race to get out there thought it's a bit less unnerving when you're running with others in the dark than by yourself. It was hilarious, and definitely a memory I won't soon forget.

I've done some running in late evening hours before, twice at John James Audubon State Park and they have some crazy, dangerous hills man, I was using my knucklight thing, got there around 7 just before they closed and I was out there for an hour. When you're in the woods, it gets darker a lot faster because the leaves are blocking out what sunlight may be left. I love it though, trail runs are awesome and doing it at night is even more so, though around here the summer evening are either very humid, rainy or full of freaking bugs so I normally run trails during Fall and Winter but I couldn't pass up this race, no freaking way...

Some like it, some don't.... 

I guess it would be extremely frustrating if I didn't know the trails, and kind of scary if you are in bear country, but it was fun for my first time.

Edit: Now looking back on it more, I think the trails were pretty well marked and would have been easy in daylight but nighttime threw us off. When running on roads you can look wherever and not really have to worry about tripping over something, but on trails you feel like you have to keep your headlamp focused on the path in front of you (at night) and so you won't look up too often and during a race you might not want to stop too long to gather yourself and figure out where you are supposed to go.

 I found out that they do have a couple runs during October, a Zombie run with obstacle course but I don't know if I will actually run it, I might just photograph it and then there is another trail race around that same time but I don't know the details yet. And since I have a half marathon on November 2 so I don't know if I will run either of those two, I have another half marathon on October 19 so most likely I'll be using the 2 weeks between to recover and take it easy.

Getting lost during a 5 mile trail race, maybe a 10 mile trail race but I would not be comfortable with something like ultras and getting lost out there lol. I mean, I want to work my way up to ultras (on trails) someday, preferably doing my first one before 40 years old so I guess I would either have to get over that discomfort or something. Next year I want to do the Indian/Celina Challenge, the 8 mile one. They have a half marathon and full marathon one and I don't think I'll be ready for either of those next year but maybe the following, who knows. The link is:

http://www.runperrycounty.com/IndianCelinaChallenge.html

It sounds really exciting, I live near those woods (an hour or so away) so this winter after my finally 2013 half marathon I am going to try and run parts of those trails at least every other weekend.... preferably with another person or group, someone who can carry the water and stuff