Training Log Archive: evancuster

Long Course, brown, M65, at North American Champs. Except for 1 control, #3, where I made a 9 minute error, and a slight bobble on 2, I had a pretty clean run. Ended up 5th M65, with Tony Federer winning just short of 1 hour, and Don Davis 6.5 minutes behind. I probably had 10 minutes of errors, so would not have been more than 70 min, which I don't think would have placed me third. My route choices were very conservative, since this was again very technical terrain. My main goals were to be sure I had an attack point, and to keep in contact with the map all of the time. Sharon Crawford ran much more aggressively, cutting across swamps and not opting for the trail routes, and came in 2nd overall on brown in 61 minutes, just after Tony. Unfortunately, Bob, Rich and George all had disastrous days, so at least my rankings will improve a bit after this weekend. I think it has been a long time since I have beaten Rich 2 days in a row.

Weather was better today, overcast but no rain. Actual distance ran 7.1 k, with 105 m climb.

Middle distance brown course at NA Champs north of Syracuse at Salmon River Fish Hatchery. Great course in a very detailed area, made more difficult by a fairly steady rain. Had 2.5 m contours and the maps were printed at 1:7500. Made a couple of 4-5 minute errors and a few other 1 minute errors. Was in 5th place in M65 but Bob Cooley and a few others had not come in yet. Don Davis won it in 46 minutes.

Really fun course and very challenging. Certainly nothing like the Bay Area. However, was followed by another guy, I think Terry ?, from control 4, even when I left 6 thinking I was at 7 going to 8. That was one of my bigger errors. Caught it fairly quickly, but was a little discombobulated, and stopped just short of the control and wandered around in the woods for a while. Also made a parallel error on 4, being a little further along the trail than I thought, went up the wrong reentrant, then the wrong ridge, until I came to a steep cliff. Figured out where I was fairly soon, but still didn't go right to the control from there.

Actual distance ran 4.6 k.

Had dinner with Rich Parker and Bob Cooley. Bob beat me by a little over a minute and I beat Rich by a little over a minute, so quite close. Only a 2.5 min error on 4 instead of a 4 min error and a 4 min error on 7.

After going over the splits

Event: North American Championships
 

Prelim for NA Champs near Syracuse, NY. Generally a good run, with a couple of suboptimal route choices and some hesitations but no big errors.

Actual distance 2.1 k.

Sprint Champs final. Generally another good run. Ended up 4th in M65, behind George Took the road around to 6, which caused problems for a lot of people who tried to go direct. A few bobbles, but pleased.