Tifu by getting lost at a cross country meet

Submitted by WorriedOwner2007 t3_yb2n9m in tifu

I (15f) had regionals Today in cross country. I had run at this course before. The first time I had been tailing my teammate up until the last half mile. I honestly wasn't paying attention to anything but her. I was planning on getting 26 minutes or faster for the meet Today.

I ran the first loop fine, once again, following someone. I was set to run a time somewhere between 26 and 27 minutes.

The second loop, however I was not so successful. Everyone was either far ahead of me or far behind me at this point. I got to the part where you were supposed to go back into the woods. I had no clue where to go.

First I tried running in a direction that looks like a path. It was a dead end. I tried another way, and this was wrong as well.

At this point, I gave up on finding it on my own, because I didn't want to accidentally cut the course.

I spent a few minutes yelling to to the top of this hill I had run down asking where to go.

Finally some coach heard me and yelled for me to run back up the hill. He told me to follow the path then go downhill and cut into the woods the same way I had the first loop.

I then had to re-do a half mile that I had already run.

I passed a teammate, got back down the hill, and realized I didn't remember how I had gotten into the woods for the first loop.

I paused, and waited a minute or two for the teammate to catch up to ask her which way to go.

She vaguely told me the way, but I went very slowly because I wasn't sure if she was right, or if I understood her.

Finally I got to the woods.

At this point, I just ran the rest of it relatively slowly because I have a foot injury, and didn't see any reason to injure it more if I wouldn't even get a good time.

I finished with a time of 40 minutes.

My parents spent around the last 10 minutes of it extremely concerned that I had gotten injured, and were about to go try to find me.

Tl;dr got lost at a cross country meet, ruined my time, emberassed myself by seeming stupid, and worried my parents

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Comments

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SithRose t1_itehjop wrote

You're not the first cross country runner to get lost on the course, and you won't be the last. I've done it myself, and I have kids your age. It's OK. It happens sometimes.

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HugoToledo_USA t1_iteidvc wrote

Sorry to hear this happened. Most of us are incapable of even attempting to complete a cross country event so you are already a winner, regardless. 😊

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GeneralChillMen t1_itejdky wrote

That’s not your fault. It’s the fault of whoever didn’t set up the track properly

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MisterBigDude t1_itejqoc wrote

No worries. That happens a lot, even to adults.

Once, I was running in a 5K race through a park, on a course I knew well. About halfway, I came upon a guy who was ahead of me but had gotten lost and stopped. He called out to me, "Which way do we turn here?" I said "Follow me!"

We ran together the rest of the way. And I tried not to slow him down ... in fact, by running at his pace, I set my PR for that course!

Also, in the only marathon I've run, I got injured partway through and had to walk the rest of the way. So I reached the finish line about an hour later than I had predicted, and my wife was panicking, figuring I must have been hit by a truck or something. She got over it, and I'm sure your parents will get over the worries they had about you.

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KansansKan t1_itekmqn wrote

Runners shouldn’t have to guess where the course is.

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wlp71 t1_itevxcb wrote

Hey, you did not panic. That is big. And you finished. If you extend your distance as you get older and start doing ultras, this experience will serve you well. Good job!

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DrunkLastKnight t1_iteyfs7 wrote

If it makes you feel better I did that too at a Cross Country even, they didnt really mark the course well and had a section that looped back to where I ended up cutting out. Could have been first had I not done that (I was the last of 15 boys that cut out part of the course)

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eddiepaperhands t1_itf7532 wrote

I don’t know if you’re laughing at this yet, but you absolutely will someday. Probably soon.

Nobody’s hurt, you handled it just fine, life goes on. We all screw up now and then, and it’s usually funny eventually.

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Stegosaur_2 t1_itfd82y wrote 

 Our regional meet was a few days ago and we had a rather confusing course as well. Good job handling that, I understand it can be embarrassing but you stuck it out till the end, I know most of my team would've called it quits, so that's props to you !
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Cold_oak t1_itggeu9 wrote

Wait you got to regionals running a 26 minute 5k?

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LilBug_Just_Dancer t1_itgid56 wrote

I had regionals yesterday too what a coincidence! I’m sorry that happened to you. Getting lost on a cross country course is so embarrassing but it happens to all of us! I admire your ability to keep going because last time that happened to me I just sat down and cried lol

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thingsorfreedom t1_itgm5yq wrote

It happens. When my son was in high school he got lost on a 5k road race he was projected to to win (his HS team was running it as a warmup to the season) There was a D1 college runner that ran only the first 2 miles at a 4 1/2 minute mile pace. The golf cart leading the race stayed ahead of him. My son lost sight of them on some of the side street turns and ran 400 meters out of his way before people directed him back onto the course. He came in 6th. Others were happy to share similar stories with him when they found out.

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Nosedominance t1_ith7dud wrote

Don't feel bad--I remember one cross country regional race where one team had a lot of really good runners and everyone expected them to win. However, the girl in front made a wrong turn and the next 5 or so girls followed. By the time they all figured it out they were too far behind, and the second best team had won (because most of them didn't get lost). Girls were crying, it was sad.

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purduephotog t1_ithq5rf wrote

*laugh*

That's been my experience with poorly marked CC courses. My personal favorite was around some trees- and the runner in front of me had grabbed onto a branch and let go- so it whipped into my face and knocked me down (Startlement helped as well as exhaustion).

I gave up that race and didn't finish.

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marigolds6 t1_itijryv wrote

Just last weekend I had a 5k race where the first 20+ people all got lost because an out and back turn was missing. We all ran 3.5mi instead of 3.1mi. It happens. The race organizers were the embarrassed ones, because the course markings disappeared on them and the course should have been better marked overall.

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PuddleCrank t1_itil9rt wrote

Replying to DrunkLastKnight (#185,247)

Every serious meet I have ever run, (high-school and College XC) had someone to direct traffic at every course fork, and was clearly marked. Some two team friendly on Tuesday probably not well market, but never a serious meet.

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DrunkLastKnight t1_itilp2m wrote

Replying to PuddleCrank (#194,280)

I only did cross in high school so can’t speak for anything outside of that while there were people at various points of the track I don’t remember all too often someone directing to make sure a wrong turn wasn’t made

Then the kicker other people were like we ran through the course and I’m like once isn’t something that is going to allow me to remember every twist and turn.

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