Race Evaluation
Batona 500, Day 2: Blue
mindsweeper
| 1. | I had less of a cough than the previous day, but more of a nose/sinus cold. I started out at a decent pace, but slowed down after making a mistake on #6. After that I focused on having a clean run and not bonking. | ||||||
| 2. | Followed the fire trail across the road (meeting Vladimir en route), and then ran S on the indistinct trail. On compass during the last bit and had no problems. | ||||||
| 3. | On compass hitting the depressions perfectly and using them to find the control. | ||||||
| 4. | Followed the oblong hill and found the larger trail to the N, then just had to look over some blueberries to find the smaller one. | ||||||
| 5. | Zig-zagged on the trails and on compass from the tip of the last one. | ||||||
| 6. |
Underrated difficulty Bad map reading +01:30 | Got confused by the trails and relocated to the road. | |||||
| 7. | Straight, using big hill to navigate. Flavius passed me. | ||||||
| 8. | I tried to find the fire trail but wasn't able to. Flavius was running further S than I wanted, so I headed NW instead and eventually found the diagonal trail that would hit the road close to #1. Then ran past #1 until just past the slight right turn / fire trail junction where I skipped over to the southern trail. The control was visible from this trail. | ||||||
| 9. | Straight. | ||||||
| 10. | On trails: Find intersection, right, left, across, right, past hunting tower and in to the left. | ||||||
| 11. | Straight until I hit the wain trail, then was too much of a wuss to cross the green. Went to main intersection instead and up the spur from there. | ||||||
| 12. | On trails (not cutting corners which I probably should have) until green, then finally started cutting straight and used the small hill next to the last trail as an attackpoint. | ||||||
| 13. |
Underrated difficulty Bad compass work +00:30 | On the first trail for a little while until the sharp left turn, than trying to cut more straight. The spur was a bit vague, and I ended up too far E. As I turned back and ran up the spur, I saw Mikel Platt missing slightly E also, and hoped he wouldn't hear the beep from the unit. | |||||
| 14. | Flavius punched just behind me on #13 (!) and passed me while running through the bluberry bushes. I had no intention of trying to follow trail, and tried to pick good microroutes. As we got close to the control, Flavius found an unmapped clearing just SW of the light green reentrant. I recognized the green and continued straight to the control, punching before him again. | ||||||
| 15. | I let Flavius pass me while running along the green, and we went in the same direction for a while. But at some point my compass course started to point a lot further N than his, and he kind of disappeared out to the left of me. When I hit the trail I made it across the green and almost to the control before he passed me again. I almost got tricked by a permanent marker, so I believe Flavius punched just before me. | ||||||
| 16. | I ran on compass looking for the hill on the line. Flavius veered off to the right, and was almost out of sight by the time I saw the hill and headed for it. He was not around when I punched. | ||||||
| 17. | I decided to be a wimp again, and ran the road until the trail almost at the edge of the green. I had considered heading into the white just after, but wanted more N/S control when crossing the rough open. That plan was foiled when I left the trail at the first clearing while thinking I had hit the trail junction, but I noticed that the reentrant at the control was decidedly the largest one, and decided to risk going on compass at that point. I aimed slightly to the left and curved right once I hit the hill. It turned out to be easier than expected. (Lucky?) | ||||||
| 18. | Straight. As I came into the control, Flavius was there checking the code and then started running towards me in the opposite direction. | ||||||
| 19. | I hit the road and ran down it until the first intersection. The green looked less intimidating than mapped, so I cut the corner and headed into the forest on the other side. I skirted the big depression and found the control easily. | ||||||
| 20. |
Bad compass work Hesitated +00:15 | Straight, looking for the hill to the E of the control. Missed a bit to the left and hesitated. Too bad - Flavius caught some time on me here. | |||||
| 21. | Straight, using contours to navigate. My memory is a bit fuzzy, which is a testament to me starting to get mentally tired, and also distracted by Flavius again. | ||||||
| 22. |
Confused parallel features Not thinking clearly Disturbed by others | Running towards #22 I somehow thought I was running towards #23. The control appeared, quicker than expected but it was under a tree! I was very puzzled, but since the code was on my list of descriptions I punched it. | |||||
| 23. |
Confused parallel features Not thinking clearly Disturbed by others | At this point I thought I was running towards #24. None of the trails I expected to come up appeared, so when I hit the rough open I was a bit puzzled. John Fredrickson came up behind, and he and Flavius started running down the rough open. Thinking it was one of the mapped trails I follow, and lo and behold - another control with my number on it. | |||||
| 24. |
Confused parallel features Not thinking clearly Disturbed by others +02:00 | John and Flavius headed SSE, which was strange since 25 was much further E than S. I naturally trusted my own skills and headed in what I thought was a better direction. Soon after I hit the road. I now realized that the previous control was not what I thought I had punched (#24), but I wasn't clear on what exactly it was. Had it been code 151, or could it have been something similar (121) and I had just punched out of wishful thinking? I decided to go back and double check, because losing a couple of minutes would be better than getting disqualified. Once I had verified the code (for #23), I headed towards #24 in the same direction that Flavius and John had disappeared. When getting close to #24 I thougt I saw John walking around confused to the NE of the control, but looking at splits it must have been someone else with a similar suit. | |||||
| 25. | Skirted the hill in the middle to the left, and got a bit too low / close to the road. Not sure how much I lost. | ||||||
| 26. | Should have been an easy leg, but I think i zig-zagged a bit. | ||||||
| 27. | Straight, using fire trails to navigate. | ||||||
| 28. | Made an effort to run faster, since the race was almost over and I hadn't bonked yet. :) Did anyone cut to the road? I went on the trails until S of #24, then straight. Jon Torrance passed me just before the control. | ||||||
| 29. | I decided to chase Jon to the last control. I though he had gone a bit too far to the right, but he turned out to hit the control spot on, and I didn't manage to gain anything. | ||||||
| F. | Jon had more juice left, but I was pretty happy with my race considering my virus-laden condition and the big mistakes I had made the day before. |
Total Time Lost - 00:04:15