Where, Oh Where Did May Go? And How To Get Lost At A Race

I know.  I haven't posted in forever.  That's because my life in May was pretty uneventful.  I think the most exciting thing I did was run on the wrong course for my 5K last weekend.  Yep.  

My sister and I signed up for the Marion Arts Festival months ago to run the half marathon.  Then we realized how ill-prepared we were (as in no running/training) so we changed it to the 5K.  We could do that.  

We walk to the event last Saturday morning--it was perfect outside, but promised to be pretty warm and muggy later on in the day.  My sister lives very close to downtown Marion, so the walk only took a few minutes.  We wandered around, waiting for the start.  Can I say there were an enormous amount of people waiting to run?  Giant hordes.  The race is no long a small race, which takes a lot of the fun out of it.  I miss that about this race.  

We followed the swell of people who were walking over to another street to start the race.  Ok.  It was so loud we couldn't hear much of anything, and everyone was wearing the same race bibs, so no distinction between half marathon and 5K runners. Boom!  We are off and running.  

We ran the wrong course.  For 5 frickin' miles, people.  I hit the 3 mile mark and was waaaaay out in the middle of nowhere--not running past Walgreen's and through the finish line.  My sister had run ahead of me, so I had no idea where she was.  I figured out I was on the wrong course pretty quickly, but had no option but to keep moving forward.  I was a bit freaked out--no cell phone, no way to find my sister.  And I was pretty far from the finish line.  

I turned a corner, and saw my sister standing at the water stop.  Phew.  She was with another woman who was also on the wrong course.  A pretty cool dude at the water stop was trying to find a sag wagon to pick us up.  Guess what?  There wasn't one.  He said there were many people who had made the same mistake, so we didn't feel too stupid.  

We started walking back since there wasn't any option for a ride.  We didn't get far when a man driving a U-Haul picking up cones offered us a ride back into Marion.  We gladly accepted.  And he too, said many people had taken the wrong route.  He dropped us off near my sister's house and we walked home.  We never even made it back downtown, never crossed the finish line, never got to eat goodies afterwards.  Phooey.

I have never run on a wrong course before in a race.  The actual 5K was on the opposite side of Marion from where we ran, and started at the same time.  There were no clear directions, we couldn't hear announcements, and nothing at all in my goodie bag about course maps or instructions.  Boo.  I really think races must always include maps of the courses and information about the race in the bags we pick up for the race.  Bud has used those maps many times when he's ridden his bike along with me as I run the races.  Race officials shouldn't expect participants to print off information on the internet.  

In good news, the annual 8K race on July 4th is going to be back downtown this year, so I plan on running it--after taking the last 3 years off.  I love this race.  There was major construction in downtown Cedar Rapids for the past few years due to the 2008 flood, and streets were blocked off.  Moving the race sucked and I didn't like the new course.  It was my mini-protest.  But it's back on the old route this year, so I am happy!  I'm going to sign up!  I have one month to be able to run 5 miles.  I have work to do.  

May has been an extremely busy month, for reasons I can't share right now.  Needless to say, my reading, flower planting, and usual Spring clean up have been delayed and I'm getting antsy to move it along.  Memorial weekend I am finally going to buy flowers, get some herbs planted, and set up the back patio.  Fingers crossed the weather stays sunny and not so darn rainy.  I'm happy to report my Iris patches are all blooming lovely purple flowers.  My lavender came back and is looking great.  Peony bush is quickly getting ready to bloom lovely giant pink poofs of beauty.  

Next up:  limoncello.  It's just about ready; this weekend I am going to finish it off and fill  the bottles!  Then summer can officially begin.  And so can another batch of limoncello.

How was your May?  Crazy like mine?  What are your plans for June?