Do MAPS come with this run??

Usually I am reasonably organized.  I hate being late for anything, and I seldom get lost.  But I have discovered in running events that, for some reason, my inner sense of where I'm at and where I need to go, occasionally shorts out.  Often there's someone to follow, but the problem with THAT is others have been known to follow ME, which is highly risky.

This was confirmed once again last Saturday in the Best Dam Run.  I mistook the finish line, placing it about 20 feet sooner than it was, and slackened my pace as I THOUGHT I had crossed it.  When you're trying to shave a few seconds off your time and have been sprinting the last couple of blocks, THAT is never a good thing to do.  Another runner mentioned that her GPS matched up perfectly with the mile markers.  ....... There were mile markers?  I never saw one.  I don't know what on earth I'm looking at, other than the ground in front of me ..... maybe that's my problem.  All I SEE is the ground, or the runner who just passed me, .... or the one I'M passing .... HA!  YES, it's happened a few times!  No lie!

On my first leg of the Hood to Coast this year, I dutifully followed what I THOUGHT were the instructions from a volunteer, whom I'm sure said, "Go straight till we tell you to turn!"  So go straight I did, which promptly sent me off course, adding an extra mile to the 6.38 I was supposed to run.  At the time it felt like something wasn't right because there was no indication of anyone or anything relay-ish ahead of me.  I looked back and saw other runners coming my way, so I figured I was okay.  Unfortunately for those other runners, they were foolishly following ME.  Hence we ALL added a mile to our leg.  If that wrong street hadn't eventually turned back towards the right street, we might be out there still.

Then there was the 10K last spring in Sherwood.  It was a 10K and 5K and we all started together with signs to direct us onto our different courses.  You can already guess what I did and as I crossed the finish line, I yelped, "Where do I go now??!"

"You're done!" chirped a cheerful official person.

"That wasn't a 10K!" ........ Oh C--P!  Somewhere around that point I realized what I had done and jumped back on the 5K course to run it again.  Fortunately a few of the 5K signs hadn't been removed and I found my way back to the finish line for a 2nd crossing.   Husband, who came late to snap pictures along the 10K route, wondered where the heck I was.  Why, out of a large group of runners, was I the ONLY one to mix up the routes??

Typically, my directional problem kicks in at finish lines.  Like the Dam run.  I've been known to run NEXT to finishes, rather than through them.  Or I stop short.  Or like at my marathon, I nearly missed the turn which would have sent me right past it.  Fortunately alert volunteers pointed and hollered, saving me from running off into oblivion.

So if you ever see me plodding down the road with a confused look on my face and a bib number pinned to my shirt, please point the way.  And try NOT to see the schlepping, frizzy hair, and over-sized shoes.