Howl at the Moon 5 Mile Trail Race

  Last night I was pretty nervous and excited, this was my fist trail race and it was at night so I got to wear my headlamp. Part of me thought it would be better to have registered for the 5k, not the 5 miler but I knew that if I did that I would immediately regret it and wish I had done the 5 miler. In other words, I stuck with the 5 mile part of the race.
DH took a couple pics of me before the race:

  It started at 9 p.m. and I was a bit in the back and we couldn't hear anything they were saying, but I wasn't worried about that. Everything was going real well for the first mile, everything was marked good and there wasn't any confusion. It was around the time we came out in a cornfield and hit two trails and one sign saying 5k..... but no 5 miles so we went the way that didn't have a sign. At that point we didn't think we were lost, by that time I was up with the brave leaders who were trying to find their way through. 
  We hit a dead end just before 1.5 I think, turned around and took this other trail with no tape, or sign. Before long we were pretty sure we were headed in the right direction again, I took up behind the girl that was leading and figured I knew these trails and I knew my way out if nobody else did. It was after a few minutes that we heard girls screaming, it sounded like they had broken their leg or something. It turns out they had gotten lost on a trail and decided to get off the trail and walk through the woods trying to find another trail or someone (excuse me, brave and crazy but thorns and wild animals... no thank you), when we confirmed that they were okay we headed on. It just got confusing from there on.....
  Just around mile 2.75 we hit a group of 5 milers coming from where we were headed, they were lost and kept going that way. We ran through muck, mud, slosh and other nasty crap I don't want to know about and I am so glad I didn't wash off my trail shoes for this race because it would have been a huge waste of time. I think when we came upon the levee we hit multiple groups that were lost, there was one small 5k group that had already hit 4 miles instead and still didn't know where they were going. Now that I look back on it, it is actually kind of hilarious really and what was even funnier was that we were all more concerned about getting our 5 miles in before finding the finish than we were finding the finish. Eventually I hit the trails and tried to make up 5 miles, winding through and bumping into others who were either lost or making up some mileage, I saw the finish and still have about a quarter of a mile left which really aggravated me but at that point I was annoyed and done with it. After looking at the course map I can see where that quarter went, we missed a turn although I know that trail was completely muddy and just more like water than trail, oh well I guess.
  DH got a few pics, a couple of me before and after because again he isn't familiar with my camera and don't know how to work the focus.
  Overall, it was a fun run if you don't think about start or finish and I hope they have it again next year and maybe a Halloween run this year because that would easily freak out a lot of people. I won't say I ran 5 because my garmin says 4.7 and so my time was 48:29 for the trail race.
During start and after pics:

 If you look at the guy in the green shirt furthest to the left at the booth table under the tent, that is lee (thekl0wn).

DH wanted to catch the sweat glistening off me. I was tired, and still aggravated dang it.