<p>Great long runs on Saturday everybody.</p>
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<p>Round 1 goes to FO</p>
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<p>The EdgarEvins with 11 miles of trails looks the most inviting TW</p>
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<p>This morning I went to run one of the three Marshall Mangler races north of Pittsburgh named after a nearby lake and the creature that may get you if you aren't fast enough on the trails. Out of the 8k,22.5k and 50k options, I decided to do the middle distance. By my calculation it equals close to 14 miles. I got there to register and had the option of getting a race shirt or saving 10 bucks. It looked like a great shirt, but compared to the 70 I have hanging in the closet, I chose to save the money. After I registered, I looked at the maps of the races and noticed that instead of 22.5k, the map said 25k. Upon further inspection of the aid stations and the mileage between each, it added up to 16.25 miles which was printed at the very bottom. My race magically got 2.25 miles longer. Since the 50k started an hour before us, I went back to my warm car hoping it would be a little warmer outside than 36° by the start of my race. We were down in a valley and it was quite a bit cooler than I thought it was going to be. I decided to do a mile warmup and took off the way our course would go. After a couple minutes, I was huffing and puffing up a huge hill eventually walking some until I got near where the 50k runners were crossing the road about 4.5 miles into their race. I made my way back down the hill and a few minutes later was ready for our start. </p>
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<p>The race director told us to go and I thought I may have been in the 8k as fast as everybody started. I tried to count how many were ahead of me but lost count. It wasn't long before that big hill tempered everybody's enthusiasm. Once we made it to the top on the road, we jumped on the golf course and went up a little more. We ran on the grass a little and finally got on single track. I had passed a few people on the hill but their enthusiasm came back and I soon had runners passing me. I had gotten a better count of runners ahead of me and with the ones passing, I was in 17th place a couple miles in. The course had really flattened out for a while but was now a series of small ups and downs. I started having a problem with runners speeding up on the downs but really slowing down on the ups and I would run up to them but have to slow my pace. After a couple miles of this I was getting a little frustrated when I tripped on something because I couldn't see far enough ahead of me. That really ticked me off so I waited for the next opening and sprinted through the high brush jumping over a fallen tree until I had passed 4 runners so I could run unobstructed. We finished the golf course loop and crossed the road to head down a trail which would lead to the other side of the park that was much hillier. One of the runners passed me back but with the downhill, he got far enough ahead it didn't bother me. Once we got down the hill, we crossed the road and started up a huge steep hill that was 20% elevation for a while. The runner that had been getting in my way had passed 4 other runners going down the hill so when we started up the hill, I passed all 5 and hammered up the hill to get as much space as I could on them. Once at the top, I had clear running and about another 10 miles to go. Every so often I would catch another runner and I passed a few of the slower 50k runners. Nothing much happened until the aid station at 11 miles. The trail didn't go exactly by the shelter and if you wanted to stay on the course, you had to take a left turn. If you wanted water, you had to take a right turn and run about a 100 ft to the shelter and back. I didn't realize this and when I got to the junction, 3 guys were standing there pointing towards the shelter. I took a right, flew by the shelter, and as I was crossing the street asked which way to go. I saw a trail right on the other side and when I got there I could go left or right. I took a right but instantly knew it didn't look right as the markings on the trees were different. As I turned around to assess the situation, a young guy came sprinting towards me and led me back down the trail. It seems the guys at the junction might have been telling the runners which way to go but with my headphones on, I could only go by which way they were pointing. My headphones costing me a minute seemed like a good tradeoff to listening to AC/DC during the race. During my small detour, a runner I had passed earlier was now back ahead of me so it took me a few minutes to run him down again. I finally got done with that loop and the only thing left was to make my way back up the hill on the trail and then coming screaming downhill on the road to the finish. I did have to walk about 30 seconds on a real steep portion and I could feel my calves getting ready to cramp up but I made it to the finish in a little over 2:13. I was 6th place so I asked if I could see the race tickets of the other 5 to see if I was first master. I wasn't as a guy I recognized the name of finished 3rd overall. Just as I turned around, I saw the guy that had been sprinting past me during the first part of the race was already finished!! That was the same guy. I told him he had to have taken a wrong turn but he thought I must have run extra because he had 15.7 miles on his garmin. He didn't realize the race was over 16 miles. Eventually, they had quite a few runners finishing from the wrong way and figured out where they were taking the wrong turn but didn't seem to be doing anything about it. It was marked correctly so if the runners followed the flags, they wouldn't have taken the wrong turn.</p>
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<p>I stuck around for the awards and they gave that guy 3rd overall anyway. When I went to get my glass for 1st master, I told the race director again that he didn't run the whole course and he said he already knew that so it looks like they aren't going to do anything about it. Of course this is the beauty of trail racing. My totals for the day were 3 falls, 1 wrong turn, running 2.25 miles more than expected, and getting knocked down at least one place in the standings!!</p>
