Angel Island Fun Run

On a beautiful sunny warm March 15th, which was suppose to be invaded by a thunder storm which never materialized, Gena, Eugena, Charlotte, Timmy and myself started our 12 Km (7.5 miles) run on Angel island (middle of San Francisco bay) sponsored by Envirosports after a short ferry ride from Tiburon. We all started as a group at the back of pack but soon were separated as I wanted to run and everyone else wanted to walk/run as a group. I was doing well, using my newly acquired Chi-Running method, but somehow took my eye off the itsy-bitsy tiny orange trail markers. After about 2 hours of running, I started to think, where were the other runners? It was nice to be running alone, but something started telling me maybe the others took the wrong trail or something. Also, I should have already completed the course about 45 minutes ago. Oh well, I thought, I'll eventually catch up to the others as this is a small island and you can't get lost. Oh wait! There's that small building I passed halfway in the run. I pulled out my map ( I always come prepared) and wondered how the hell I could be on the opposite side of this stupid island. After consulting with a runner on the 25K run, I figured out exactly where I was. My choices were either to continue to run forward and run the course twice or go back and do some cross country navigating to get back to the 2nd half of the trail. Either way I was screwed; I was half way from the finish line, so it didn't really matter which way I chose. Obviously, I chose the safest route, considering my situation; I chose navigating cross country. So off I went, backtracking for about a mile or so until I came to a shortcut to that surely would take me to the 2nd half of the trail I should have been on already. Shortcut my ass! Jeeps couldn't make it up that damn road. I could walk on my hands and feet and still be vertical! A mile and a heart attack later, I finally reached the peak of the island (we weren't suppose to go this high) and started running down the hill to intersect the trail. Finally, I see the the trail and there are 2 runners on the right trail. It was no other than Charlotte and Timmy with Mom and Eugena close behind. So I joined them and continued running the rest of the course (they chose remain together as a group) and finally finished almost dead last (2 hours 25 minutes) for the 12Km course. I figured I had run an extra 5 miles or more for a total of about 12 to 13 miles due to those damned small obscure markers. To make this run more interesting, I brought no water or munchies with me on the trail, as I was expecting to only run 7.5 miles. It was around the 8th mile that I started to get dehydrated and by the 10th mile most of my muscles were cramping and I had absolutely no energy. I was so glad the last few miles were all down hill. I now know that if I ever run a half marathon (on purpose), I plan to bring water, and instruct those in charge to use bigger trail markers. - Dad