Personal best?

Saturday I lined up with 60 other women for the first ever Women Sport Evasion 7 K. The announcer told us there would be prizes for the first 8 finishers and a special prize for the most "smiley" runner. One woman took off like a jackrabbit. In 5 minutes, we lost sight of her as well as the man on the bike leading the way. From then on, 3 of us took turns leading the others (the blind leading the blind), sometimes stopping and backtracking looking for clues to indicate the way. We briefly caught sight of the leader near the turn, and later ran into runners on the same path going the opposite direction! Near the finish, the race director started yelling at us to turn around, which we did reluctantly and followed the women who had been behind us (a scene from the Three Stooges, or what?). I just knew we would all be disqualified, but when we crossed the finish line, some of the earlier finishers were trying to explain that the 3 of us stragglers had actually been ahead of them. All was eventually sorted out. Everyone recieved a consolation prize. Six of us got Casio watches, and nothing more was said about the "smiley" award. I don’t think I can honestly take credit for my 28’50’’ finish. But one thing is certain, the winner was the only one to log a true 7 K that day.