I’m never quite sure how these town designations work; I showed up for this race in Mansfield, but as I pulled into the high school parking lot, right next to the University of Connecticut, Storrs, it seemed to me that I was in Storrs. I figured if it was listed on the club site, it would count somewhere, and I hadn’t run there yet, so I was OK. Then when there was no starting line, and no starting gun, and just a guy yelling, rather quietly, “Run!” I was slightly concerned. We all looked at each other, and then agreed that he must have been trying to start the race, so we took off.

I felt good, and kept in the top ten, even passing some people in mile 2,, but at a certain point, the group stretched out, no one was in front of me, and there was absolutely no course marking as we ran through the construction zone that is the University. I ran vaguely in the same direction as we’d been going, but was definitely not on the course anymore. I ended up running down some great big hill toward the main street I came in on just to get my bearings. A 5k turned into a 3.5 mile race, and I lost two or three minutes, which was a bummer, seeing how good I felt about the first 2/3rds. I somehow still ended up first in my age group, which was a nice surprise.

Friends of E. O. Smith Crew 5K | 5K (3.5m) | 6/9/18 | 26:48 | 68/169