Race Evaluation
2006 North American Championships (Golden Leaf Ori: Long Course 6
jjcote
| 1. | Nearly straight. Off the trail at the corner, down across the marsh, and was plesed to find it dry, and figured I could count on running in dry marshes all day. Climbing the hill, I crossed a trail, but it didn't seem to be going the right way, so I ignored it and went for the cliffs. Once on top, I was able to read the vegetation and then contours to get to the control. | ||||||
| 2. | Very straight. Partway there, somebody slowly overtook me, and I was surprised to see that it was Ted de St. Croix. He stopped to look at his map, and I told myself to ignore him, because heas was on a different course (had no idea whether he was or not, actually). Forged ahead with my plan and found the control right where I expected it. | ||||||
| 3. | To the left of the marsh, although the going was so nasty that I almost wonder whether right would have been a good choice. Over the first pavement hill, didn't see the stream on the map (light blue is supposed to have bank lines!), but got through it okay, and slogged through the slash to the trail. Crossed the trail and figured the marsh would be good, but was alarmed to find that it was actually a lake (the beavers must have been busy!). Waded across, came out to the right of the control, and went E to find it with no problem. | ||||||
| 4. | Pretty much straight. Struggling through the rocks and deadfall to get to the flag, I made some emphatic grunting noises, and a woman who had just punched said, "Exactly. Ditto." | ||||||
| 5. | +01:00 | Planned to go E to teh small trail and take it S to the big trail, never saw the left route all on small trails. Drifted too far to the right, though, and didn't hit the trail, so I just kept running, figuring I'd have to hit something eventually. I did finally hit the small trail pretty far S, so that worked out okay. Big trail around to the high point, then dived into the woods and tried to read my way through, but drifted left, and had trouble reading the contours once I got to the pavement. Got to the cliff N of the control (near the numeral "5"), and recognized where I was (the cars driving by were also a big clue). Easy getting to the control from there. | |||||
| 6. | A little right until I got to the trail, a little left afterwards, found the dry pond, piece of cake. | ||||||
| 7. | +04:00 | SSW to the big trail, and followed it around to just E of the control, and headed in through the white woods. Must have just missed the &^$*(# pit several times as I was in a tight orbit around it, recognizing all of the other features. "Down" feature in the green, grrr... | |||||
| 8. | Concerned about having lost my momentum, I pushed on this leg, following the edge of the semi-open, then down to the pond. | ||||||
| 9. | Straight and fast, trying to shake a guy I had caught on the previous leg. Hesitated at the cliff/sinkhole halfway there, because what I saw on the map was different from what was seeing in the terrain (I now see that it's a rocky pit that's touching a cliff). | ||||||
| 10. | Hadn't unfolded the map to plan this leg in advance, but now I saw what I was up against, and realized that this next control was pretty much the rest of the race. Made sure I had the map all the way open in case there were any wide routes that I'd want to use. What jumped out at me was a section of big trail in the middle of the leg, and some manageable navigation after that. So the route choice boiled down to how to get to that trail, which was less than half of the entire distance. Decided to go S of the dark green marsh that loomed in front of me, then through the rough semi-open to get to the trail. So I charged westward, going pretty much past #7, and into the woods. I had seen that there was a trail taht could help me get around the S end of the marsh, but my map was bouncing to much to tell whether it was to my left or my right. Hoped that it was to my right and would pass in front of me, but it didn't show up, and I was busy dodging branches in the thick stuff. Next thing I knew, I was at the marsh, at the narrow part. Thought about turning left to go around it, but it actually looked pretty narrow and passable, so I headed into it, and it was a piece of cake. Climbed up to the trail on the far side, and considered that I had just been through a section that didn't seem very well fieldchecked. By this time I had spoted the small trail that went along the edge of the rough field ahead, so I turned left to look for it. Suspected it might be hard to find, and it was, but I managed to not miss it. That led into more than a kilometer of trail running, where I pushed as hard as I could. Left the big trail by the two boulders, and the marsh turned out to be fairly thick and gnarly to get through (a nice fellow competitor let me "play through" here). On dry ground, ran headlong W, hoping to find a trail, but got to the next marsh instead. No problem, easy to find a trail from there, then along the base of a cliff to another trail, and stayed on trails as long as possible, passing Guy Olsen and (I think) Adrian Zissos shortly before the control. | ||||||
| 11. | Home stretch, all ski-O from this point pushed hard, cutting corners but keeping on contact. | ||||||
| 12. | Pushing even harder, barely keeping track of my location, just making sure I was still going pretty much north and looking for something I could recognize, knowing that there was no way to miss the ranch. Things looked familiar as I got close. | ||||||
| F. | Whew! |
Total Time Lost - 00:05:00