Am I due for a blog name change?

To be perfectly honest, this blog started off as a training log back in 2008. Having completed a few races at that point my mom asked if I was doing anything to journal my running experiences. At the time, I was not. Thus, this was simply meant to be a way of keeping track of my race observations and experiences for basically an audience of one.

In 2009 and 2010 I started running a little bit more, but was also gaining a bit of notoriety for getting lost on trail runs and during races. I have taken a 17 mile detour on a 27 mile training run in the middle of winter. That's directionless efficiency at its finest. That particular escapade resulted in hitch hiking into town, and eventually getting two police escorts back to my vehicle. It doesn't end there as I've taken detours of several miles at a handful of ultras, several resulting in time losses of 20-30 minutes. It doesn't seem like much, but when you run a 50k in 4:48, and realize you would have been under 4:30, it really bums you out knowing the extra two miles you ran probably knocked you off the podium. Mishaps during 100's are a little more forgiving because of the larger time cushion, but even then the times I've lost 30 minutes looking for a turn, or course flagging, can be a matter of finishing 9th, or 5th (aka the 2010 Old Dominion 100).

The idea of naming my blog "Lost in the Woods" is nothing more than a clever little self depricating way of acknowledging my proclivity for getting lost. It hasn't always been about taking a wrong turn. In fact, sometimes I've been on the correct path, but second guessed my whereabouts due to previous inabilities to stay on course. For the better part of the last three years, I couldn't show up to a race without someone asking "you gonna get lost today?", "hope you stay on course!", or "hey, it's wrong way Bailey". I've had a number of people I've never met who recognize me as the guy with the blog about getting lost. In a way it's very humbling to know people read this, but also funny in that it's almost like being known as a beer mile, or Krispy Kreme champ. I can't really tell if it's good, or bad, so I just smile and wave. It's nice good to know my reputation gets around with surgeon like precision. My efforts to be the most clueless runner on earth were finally recognized in 2009 when my running club, the VHTRC, unanimously voting me as the recipient of the "Stupid Award". Stupid is as stupid does, and I does a lot stupid.

....However, it should be noted that I was never off course in the year 2011. Was it because I wasn't running enough to have the opportunity to get lost? Maybe, I am slower now, and less likely to miss a turn? Or perhaps with age comes conventional wisdom...like carrying turn sheets, paying attention at pre-race briefings, and studying a description of the course.

This beckons the question, do I keep the blog titled "Lost in the Woods"? It has almost become a term of endearment, and I think readers often a enjoy a guy who doesn't take himself too seriously. I've actually become a little attached to the title of being THAT guy who always gets lost, even when I don't. For now the name stays, but mostly because I can't think of anything better.