Part of the Hartford Marathon family of races, this early morning trail run seemed like a good idea at the time. I had the choice of a 3.3 or 5.5 mile race, and chose the shorter, as I thought I’d give myself a break and also perhaps try for a second race later in the day, and wanted to have enough time to get there. Like last week’s this race had another fully computerized registration system, very fancy. As we gots started, I listened when the director described the way the trail was marked, but made the mistake of not looking particularly closely at the course map beforehand.

The 3.3 mile crew diverged from the longer course early on, and I quickly remembered how fun trail running is, always keeping on my toes, especially because it has rained that morning and everything was a little wet. After a tough hill, we rejoined the 5.5 mile route, and shortly thereafter, there was a sign pointing right for the 5.5 mile course. There was no corresponding sign for the 3 mile course, so I felt like I had no choice but to follow the 3 miler ahead of me and turn right. There was also no volunteer there; they were plentiful elsewhere but naturally not where we needed directions. I asked the next volunteer I saw if we were on the 3 mile course, and was disappointed but not surprised to learn we indeed were not. There wasn’t much else to do but finish it out, with the end result being an almost 5.5 mile run, with a crappy time in the 3 mile race and no result in the longer one we improvised. It also blew my interest and schedule for a second race, so I headed home, wet and worn out. Oh well.

Summer Solstice Trail Run | 3.3M/5.5M | 6/18/17 | 49:36 | 47/169