Summer Solstice Trail Marathon

This was my make it or break it race. I have been feeling love/hate about running lately, and was unsure of how I'd react to 42.2km, 1866m elevation trail marathon. I'd been a bit slack in my training as well. If this race sucked I was going to postpone my first 50miler until next summer.
Sooooo....the weather was overcast-perfect. My mood-great. Energy-lots of it. What I loved about this race was there were maybe 30 runners entered. I met running great Adam Campbell(he won). Maybe if I wasn't introducing myself to him during the course briefing I wouldn't have gotten lost! (that story coming up). Felt very cozy as I got to know some great new people. One of which was Andie. We ran up Grouse, and down Old Mountain Hwy together. She was telling me her daughter wants her ears pierced at 7-I told her to just let her. I shared my struggles with training lately-she told me I'm burnt out. Moments like these are why I love racing. Struggling up a mountain and talking about life with a complete stranger. Then I got lost and didn't see Andie for the rest of the race :( Getting lost is an exaggeration. I simply did these two loops in the wrong order. I saw flagging and just turned off to follow it. Poor 80yr old race volley didn't tell me I had to do that loop 2nd as A) she was 80, and B) my bib was on my pack so she didn't realize I was racing. Well I didn't quite realize my mistake until I saw Adam Campbell running lightning fast towards me. We waved, I ran, the loop looped, and I realized: "This.Is.Not.Right. I SHOULD NOT be behind Adam Campbell. Shit." All said and done it made no difference.
Nearing the end I hit an aid station where I promptly ate about 3 cut up oranges. I couldn't stop! Most Delicious. And sorry to anyone who may have wanted oranges running behind me. Left that aid station as Chickie said "8k to go!" Yippee!!! I get going with heavy legs. I run for about 30 minutes when I come up to another aid station. As I run by Chickie says" Only 8k to go!" Well WTF. I know better than to believe what I'm told about km countdowns-but still. Of course the trail meanders through the forest, and I know I'm close to been back near Grouse. I think its almost time for the downhill sprint to the finish when *gulp* flagging leads me back up Grouse Mountain. Mother%&$^^. Was stoked when I did end up on that downhill sprint to the finish, in at 6:18. Andie was there cheering me on-she'd thought I'd injured myself so she was thankful to hear I'd only done the route ass backwards. I sat at the finish for awhile, freezing my ass off at the Summer Solstice race. How ironic.
I must say now that Summer Solstice is done, I can solely focus on the Stormy 50 miler and I'm feeling super pumped for it! Then I'll take some chill time, do some smaller races, and become a fair weather runner!