Race Evaluation
US Individual Championships (Sprint/Middle/Long/Trail): Long - Brown
DWildfogel
| 1. | +01:30 | Followed trail to just past second stream crossing. Followed bearing towards triangular patch of green. Seemed to come to such a patch at the right distance, went to the right of it and continued on bearing towards control. Hadn't seen the mapped reentrants, and at this point saw neither the slope to the right nor the vegetation that I figured to see in the marshy area, but kept going. When pace count ran out, was in the middle of a very bland area. Figured since I'd seen neither slope nor marsh, I must be too far N, so headed S and soon saw to my right a reentrant straddled by rootstocks - the control! Lost maybe 45 secs because I always start off slowly for a long race and another 45 hesitating and going slowly at the end. | |||||
| 2. | Managed to hold my bearing through all the muck and nailed it. | ||||||
| 3. | +01:30 | Somehow interpreted the line of black dots starting S of #2 as a ditch. Went uphill looking for it, but not finding it started heading due W. When I got to the hillside and didn't find the control, reasoned that I'd probably drifted a ways uphill at the beginning and was now too far left, so ran the contour heading NE and found the flag. Lost time due to extra distance and due to having to sort things out at the end. | |||||
| 4. | Probably not necessary to go up to the campground, but it was comforting, though a bit tiring up the hill. Once across the stream, recognized the trail bend and the spur in front of me, and nailed it. A good leg. | ||||||
| 5. | Having scouted out this spectator control prior to starting, this was no problem at all (and I would up with the fastest split on Brown). | ||||||
| 6. | +01:00 | Lost 10-15 secs leaving #5 deciding on my route. (My entire route is on Route Gadget, where there are some additional comments as well.) Made sure to see #9, and moved pretty well up to that point. Slowed down a bit after that, but still couldn't pick much of the detail on the map. When my pace count ran out, stopped and looked around and spotted the flag about 30 m behind me and 30m further from the river. (It was generally agreed that the feature was actually about 60m further from the river than mapped.) | |||||
| 7. | +00:20 | Once across the stream, slowed down trying to identify details, and had to push myself to forget them and just head for where the stream goes up the big reentrant to the right, which I did. Crossed the stream, went up the spur hoping to see the two root stocks, but I didn't. Nevertheless, contoured along the hillside, crossed the wide reentrant and nailed it. Earlier in this leg I stepped in a hole and felt a shooting pain in my left knee. | |||||
| 8. | +01:30 | Realizing I was still feeling pretty strong, pushed up to the form line hilltop. An elderly woman with a foreign accent asked me to help her, and I pointed out where we were on her map. Probably only cost me 5 secs, but maybe some concentration, too: when I crossed the ditch, I found myself at a rootstock with a control marker, meaning my bearing had taken me too far to the right. Tried to take a bearing from there, found myself on a distinct spur, but no pit. Took me too long to realize that if I was on a spur, I must be S of the control, but then went N and found it. | |||||
| 9. | +00:30 | Tried to go NNW up to the jeep trail, but vegetation kept forcing me to the right. Suddenly came to the out-of-bounds field, without having crossed a jeep trail. Puzzled, but headed due W just inside the forest. After maybe 150m, the supposed jeep trail started appearing just a bit to my left, so jumped on that. Ran hard to the end of the little field, then on a rough bearing towards the 3 black x's. Just as my pace count ran out, there were the three pieces of metal junk, just in front of me and to my left. Adjust my bearing and very quickly spotted the rootstock that I remembered from seeing it on the way to #6. Ran this leg hard, so despite losing at least 30 secs because the map was wrong about the road, had the second fastest split. | |||||
| 10. | Assuming that the road by #10 would actually be there, pushed hard knowing it would be hard to miss. Crossed the stream just below the bend, crossed under the power line and noted that the stanchion to my right was at the level I needed to get up to, kept pushing along my bearing, and just as I was about to worry, there was the bag just in front of me an to my left. | ||||||
| 11. | Ran hard down the trail, cut 45 degrees when the green ended, saw the rootstock just to my right, then saw the ditch and the spur. | ||||||
| F. | Looked at my watch just before I punched the GO control, and saw that it was 59:08 - hey, I might break an hour! That spurred me to the fastest split on the run-in. My ability to run that hard after leaving #8 all the way through to the end surprised (and, of course, pleased) me. My overall strategy (based on my lack of confidence in being able to identify subtle features on this map) of relying on compass, pace count and major features and ignoring details served me very well on this day. |
Total Time Lost - 00:06:20