Miss a turn and lose a race.

Today I ran a 5 mile race representing my son on his Naval base. The race had about 30 runners toe the line. I met some of the officers who pointed out the guy that has been winning all the races on base this year.

My only concern was not to get lost while running the race. My plan was to run with the current champion and not to get lost.

At the start of the race the race director told us that there would be blue flag posts at every corner to help direct our run. I was comforted to hear there were some markers on the course and took off running in the lead from the start. Everything was going well until after the turnaround. I hit the 2.52 mile turnaround in 14:47. I drank some water and headed back the way I came. Running back I passed the 2nd place guy who was maybe a minute behind.

At the 3 mile marker I noticed my new Garmin 205 was stopped. I apparently hit the stop button at the turnaround instead of the lap button.

I continued to push the pace knowing that I'd be done in less than 12 minutes. I like to think of how much time I have left rather than distance. I can think of suffering through a certain amount of time much easier than toughing it out through mile after mile.

Following the blue markers along the run course was easy enough except when it came for the last turn to the finish. I missed the turn and continued on before my son pulled up next to me in his car and told me which way I needed to go. I ran an additional .8 of a mile and came in 3rd overall with a time of 33:30.

As you can guess I was mad for missing the turn and not breaking the winning tape. Oh well, everyone else knew I won or would have won the race.

After more runners came in the finishing area I met more Navy officers and I had an appreciation of meeting and running with our service men serving our country.

On our way home we drove back to the point of where I missed the turn and saw the reason why I missed the turn. The blue flag marker was maybe 50 feet from the corner behind a utility box and close to a telephone pole.

I normally have time for a warm up run before a race and I would jog the last finishing miles to familiarize myself of what the finish line looks like and to visualize me crossing the finish line in style. My mistake for not warming up. I'll learn from this one.