I did not win the Susitna 50k (foot division). I was disqualified for taking the wrong route around, or in my case through the parking lot to the finish line. Now I don’t want anyone to get upset with the Susitna race organizers or feel sorry for me. The course marking was great, easy to follow and well organized. So how then did I manage to screw this up? I wasn’t paying attention. Which is my biggest weakness while racing. I was following closely behind a biker who unfortunately rode by the “X” marking that as the wrong route. Staring at their back tire I didn’t notice the “X” either. At the time I thought it was strange that we didn’t follow the same route back to the race start/finish but it was marked with lathes also so I just shrugged it off. Coincidently, these lathes for Northern Lights 300 dog race as I later found out. Long story short my race was 0.3 miles short of the Susitna 50k https://www.strava.com/activities/254970516
So the reason I totally blame myself for this today is that I’ve developed a trend of getting lost, wandering and getting directed off trail. 3 out of 4 of my most recent long races have involved some sort of off course shenanigans. Nothing frustrates me more than making excuses for poor race performances and I feel that if this had happened once I could just shrug my shoulders and say oops. Clearly this is a reoccurring problem unique to myself and I need to work on fixing it. I am not sure how but I need to figure something out. I can train hard, get fit and run as fast I want but it doesn’t matter how fast I am if I can’t follow a course.
All in all it was a fun day and I would like to congratulate Nina on a great first 50k. It was also great to get to know legendary mountain running and baby saving Ben Marvin better during the race. I’m really sorry to Ben for screwing up the results like that. No one likes for a race to end like that. I’m also really sorry for the biker in front of me because after explaining to the RD what happened they DQ’d her as well. I hope everyone else had a great time, and congratulations to David Johnston for his 100-miler victory.
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