Race Evaluation
Western States + Intercollegiate Championships: Sprint
Nadim
| 1. | S-1 - I took Peggy's start time since she decided not to run?it was an hour earlier than my previously scheduled time. Since the start was so visible and everyone was going in different directions, I and a lot of others were wondering what to do. It was weird that so many people were going over the first reentrant incurring extra climb. I thought the start must not have been placed as it was mapped. Going above the reentrant seemed good but the footing looked bad. As Lynn Walker and I watched, JJ Cote went around to the right. I decided to do the same and did with Lynn starting a minute behind me. Having had a look at the map, my guess as to which reentrant it would be was correct. I angled up and adjusted my angle of attack leftward after checking the compass. I spiked it just as some others were coming to it from the other side. I had been worried about this sprint getting me too tired for tomorrow but going up I was okay. | ||||||
| 2. | 1-2 - I took a bearing and went straight at it. It seemed odd to me that I descended in a reentrant, but as I kept straight and over the next small ridge, I saw the wash and the reentrant with the control. The reentrant that I had descended in was on the map but was shown with subtlety. | ||||||
| 3. | 2-3 - I had started to feel winded and figured that I?d need to conserve strength. I ran around the hill on the right side, on the side of the wash to stay out of the sand as much as possible. I left near the end of the mapped wash, at a bend. My bearing across the flat was not good and I got confused by the contours ahead. I aimed for a saddle when I should have been going more to the left. The mapping of the knoll had confused me, as I went through the saddle and past the control I looked for a knoll ahead. I must have gotten to the formline spur south of #4 before turning around. Ugly. | ||||||
| 4. | 3-4.- I took a bearing and read things along the way to spike it. I figured it was over for me by this point but kept up a good effort. | ||||||
| 5. | 4-5 - Like #4, I took a bearing and read my way over the spur and reentrant to spike the control. | ||||||
| 6. | 5-6 - I ran over the hill and slowed at the road to see if I was in the right place. I was too far from a discernable feature of the road so I kept going down the open spur. In the reentrant, it seemed that I had to go farther down than expected; I went on and it was there. | ||||||
| 7. | 6-7 - I went straight counting reentrants. Perhaps I should have stayed lower and gone along the ditch. Eventually, I went just over top of the control. Had I looked behind I would have seen It to my left a little. Not seeing it, I convinced myself that I had miscounted reentrants. I went on and on again. Eventually I dropped low to relocate. I saw #8 on the other side of the gully and knew it was not #7. I should have known it was #8 but didn't. Eventually, I went to #8 and retraced the leg back to #7. As I did this, I felt sure that the mapping in the area was not showing enough of the detail. It was especially true as the side reentrants joined the main gully. I think the map must have just been blown-up from 1:10,000 instead of re-mapped at 1:5,000. | ||||||
| 8. | 7-8 - Since I had just come from #8 earlier, I pretty much retraced my steps. Even then, it wasn?t straight forward since the detail of the reentrant that #8 was in was not showing on the map. I felt tired and a bit dejected at this point too. I wondered if I should just take it easy from there but upon getting to the control, Lynn walker was coming from the other direction. She had made an error too but was now a minute up on me. I felt I needed to make up the minute. | ||||||
| 9. | 8-9 - I ran on the right side of the main gully and crossed where it opened to a more gradual crossing, just before the control. | ||||||
| 10. | 9-10 - Straight up and over; almost. I chased an older man and a woman ahead of him. The woman was leading too far to the right and later chose the wrong reentrant. The man and I turned a bit more left as we got to the top and dropped into the reentrant. I got there before the man. | ||||||
| 11. | 10-11 - I ran straighting, over top of the reentrant in-between. I was a little hesitant but dropped into the correct reentrant with the control. | ||||||
| 12. | 11-12 - I ran a little on the left side but fairly straight. I wanted to make sure to be ahead of Lynn by a minute so I pushed on a bit. | ||||||
| 13. | 12-13 - I went fairly straight again. I could see the finish on the way and thought I was near done. My map was folded and hid #14. I saw the control from the last ridge. | ||||||
| 14. | 13-14 - I ran a little to the right to use a reentrant/spur for a more gradual climb. Once again, I could see the control from the last ridge. | ||||||
| F. | 14-15 - I just ran down the reentrant not wanting to push too hard for tomorrow. |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00