Afton Trail Race 2010

The pre-race briefing.

A funny thing happened on the way to the finish line, I started the race, took a wrong turn (along with several other people), did one loop and was running along talking to Les (a runner at Murphy Hanrehan Park). He told me I was first woman ! I'm a 5 hour marathoner so I knew there was a problem. He told me he was 10 miles into the race. I thought I was at about mile 5. So when I got to the next aid station, I asked for a map and figured out where I had to go to run the loop I missed. Back towards the start, adding on at least 2 miles, and probably more to my overall distance.

I did the Africa loop, and the Back 40, got to see Maria and Wendy at their aid station.

Also saw a Henslow's Sparrow (difficult to find bird) singing his little heart out on the north end of the park. I sent Larry a quick email to let him know.

When I got to the next aid station (I had been there twice before), I told him it felt like I was in the movie "Groundhog Day" because I kept doing the same thing over and over. It was also where I caught up with Patty and Geri Lynn (runners I met back in 1989!) so we finished the rest of the race together.  The Aid Station people were terrific (including Jeffrey, Lynnette, Annie & others), the race organization was superb. The volunteers and Afton SP people are wonderful. The food was fabulous - at the aid stations and the finish line.

I told the finish line people of my mix up and my extra miles. This was a good training run for the 50K in a couple of weeks.

Gene the park manager presented John with a plaque recognizing the $$ the race has donated to the park over the years.

It is a great race, highly recommended !

Afton Trail Run tomorrow

Stopped at Afton SP this afternoon. Lots of activity, they are getting ready for the race tomorrow and so am I.  Alicia was there with her new car - nice ! We brought race stuff in to the Visitors Center. There were probably a dozen people running around, getting things organized for the aid stations, packet pick up and any number of other pre-race activities.

Me? I'm tapering, taking today off. Just walking up the hills over at Carpenter Nature Center was a little tiring.  Why would I be tired? Maybe, it is because of all the cross training we've been doing?

Heard the Henslow's sparrows from the parking lot. There was another person birding (I could tell from the expensive binoculars) so we talked. He heard more than I did and he actually saw one.

Tom from CNC asked if he could still register for the race tomorrow. I think I surprised him when I said yes.

It should be fun tomorrow. I recognized several of the volunteers. Not sure how many of them are running tomorrow. The one place I saw the course, it had a distinctive course marking.  I know they had to change the course because of trail closings. No one "should" get lost.