Training Log Archive: mintore

This race was a complete mess for me. I started by recognizing from the previous day that care was required going to control 1. A brutal split to control 1 was just the beginning. Rather than crossing the dry ditch just before control 1, I veered across the main stream ending up lower on the slope bearing control 15 (although I never saw it)! Saved by a streamered trail, I got back underway. Halfway to two, read a gully as a contour which slowed me down but I made it to #2. My run improved until I was 150 m from #7. Nice features, knew exactly where I was and then shut my brain off momentarily. I wound around the large hill at the SW corner of the map, significantly off the map to an oval section of stream channel from the previous day (argh!!). This was slower confused travel rather than frantic confused travel. It took a long time for this error to sink in but eventually I pulled out of it. 8-9 were fine. For 10, I made it to the three boulders on the spur to control #4 -- but I didn't realize it. So 10 was a disaster, saved ultimately by finding 5 and retracing from 5 to 4 to 10.

It was a this point my day got better! I didn't care any more about anything other than trying to get back not OT. I realized the best way to do this, the only way to do this, was to not mess up any more. Every control became an intentional 100 double pace run, stop, make sure everything was fine, and do it again, and again, and again until I made it to the finish line. The only remaining gross error was a 180 leaving control 15. I realized what had happened by 75 paces (actually a bit earlier, but my legs wouldn't stop).

So, +1 hr of mistakes were made, I finished 13 min inside the time limit, so I felt relieved but I could have saved a lot of pain by doing forty 100 double pace runs error free. I compliment BOK on their nice courses this weekend and had a numbing sort of fun. Cheers!

Red day 2 - Splits

Event: Birkhead Wilderness Classic (US Classic Champs)
 

A pretty weak run. Maybe more will be written later, but the course was similar to OCIN/ICO terrain but more subtle, more rocks, and way fewer line features. One observation was that it seemed much harder than the model course.

Red day 1 - Splits

Checking out the model map