I competed with my GF in a trail 5k this past weekend at a local “Nature Center”.  Living just a few miles from the George Washington Bridge in North Jersey, nature centers are where city folks come to see squirrels.  The whole place couldn’t have been much bigger than 1 square mile.  Anyways, the race was quick, so I will try to keep the RR quick as well.

We lined up for an 8:30 start.  A quick glance around at footwear confirmed my suspicions that this was a trail race for road runners (not a pair of trail shoes in the group).  I lined up near the front, the RD did his spiel…On your marks, set, GO and we were off.  The first mile of the course is on streets and started down a fairly steep hill.  Once we flattened out I was in about 8^th place with 1^st place already a good distance out.  At the 2^nd turn, I saw that 1^st place had stopped and was looking back trying to figure out which way to go.  “Left” I shouted (hoping I was right…I was).

When we turned off the streets into the woods I was sitting in 5^th place with 1^st place way out and 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th a good 100 yards ahead of me and the fellow that was tagging along with me.  At this point, I decided I would be happy with a 5^th place finish (5ks hurt).   When we came to the first downhill trail section, I bounded down the hill and found myself right behind the chase pack.  I hung right behind them until a staircase where I actually had to stop and wait for the 3 ahead of me to go up the stairs.  At the top was a water stop.  I poured a cup over my head then proceeded to drop my sunglasses.  By the time I picked them back up, 6^th place was right on top of me again.  We came to a fork in the trail and I saw a sign pointing left, but #2,3,4 were about 50 yards up the trail heading right.  I hollered to them…they stopped and turned back.  I continued on, now in 2^nd place.  I used a little extra juice through the next section and after the 2^nd downhill section of trail I was comfortably running alone with a mile to go.  I could hear them announcing the 1^st place finisher before I could see the finish.  A few more windy turns and I was back in the parking lot and through the shoot for a 2^nd place Overall finish with a time of 20:20.

1^st place was a minute ahead of me, 3^rd place was 20 seconds behind.  I hung around and clapped everyone in and watched the debacle as everyone tried to locate the finish shoot (you had to make a 90 degree turn to go through the shoot).  My GF finished strong with a smile on her face as she snaked past 5-6 runners a few yards before the shoot.  She had a great time and ended up finishing 4^th in her age group…3^rd place had been running with her, but took off at the end and beat her to the line.

All in all a successful day.  I was not looking forward to the race on Saturday night because I had worked 13 days straight and a 5k race was not what I wanted to be doing on my free day, but I’m glad I showed up and took home a “silver medal”.  Thanks for reading.

Kinda funny to take wrong turns on a 3.1 mile race, good job helping out your fellow runners.

Nice finish time for a trail 5K.

Thanks guys

AT- I know my gf has been toying with the idea of a 1/2 marathon, but nothing solid.  I think she's happy doing the occasional 5k, although she did enjoy a trail 5 miler earlier in the year.  She likes races she doesn't have to train for

You gave yourself away as a Trail Runner, because you helped out lost runners, not once but twice.  Nice run.  So what distance is GF going to do next?

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Glad you and the GF had a good time. You're quite speedy.

You guys are making me think I mighta won this thing if I just would have kept my mouth shut!  After the race both the RD and the Chairman of the Nature Center asked for my input on course markings.  I shared my experience, but told them that I thought the course was adaquetely marked...it was.  I looked at the course map for about 30 seconds...doesn't seem like anyone else did.

Nice job...funny too.  Is it because road races mark the road where a trail might have a ribbon on the tree?  Maybe if they had looked at the map ahead of time.  At least you proven the statement, "Nice guys finish last" wrong.  They actually get second.

Queen, NJ road runners might not know what a "tree" is - and road races don't have ribbons on lamp poles... no wonder the guys were confused! 

Nice job...funny too.  Is it because road races mark the road where a trail might have a ribbon on the tree?  Maybe if they had looked at the map ahead of time.  At least you proven the statement, "Nice guys finish last" wrong.  They actually get second.