woo traverse! almost got magnus and tim, but blew it blundering around 19. i could feel it slipping away...
short version, one epic fustercluck on 19, one crap route choice, one meh route choice and three near-pin meanders.. back-and-forth with Aaron from 7 through the end. He was definitely the stronger runner, but I got back at him on micro- and medium- (meso-?) route choices.
1) Pushed out in front to avoid a conga line at the first pin. In right behind Ian.
2) Planned to take the southern trail, was curious what the Brothers were up to and followed them cross-country to the northern trail
3) End run around the north, drifted into the easement, caught the obvious terrain features (30s)
4) Back to the easement, up the hill third (or second-and-a-half, then third) left, to the hill. (20s)
5) Straight off the end of the trail. Not perfect at the end (15s)
6) Stupid route over the top. Not too slow, but a waste of energy. Bit of a wandering search party (Tim, Aaron, Will, Magnus, myself) at the stick. (2:00?)
7) Took the trail route north. Saw Aaron in the distance, made up some time cutting tangents. He was doing what I planned on, but he cut in a little late, on worse features. I just followed the spur.
8) Went off the apex of the trail, nailed. Aaron went a little low and fell behind.
9) Easement up to the drop, bang. Cut in a little early, to no loss.
10) Across the street, and stupidly up to the trail. Shoulda just went straight for it. Aaron stayed low, made up time, but I moved more decisively to the control. (30s)
11) Easy
12) Brief turn to 13. Nice. (10s)
13) Put some distance on Aaron. Drifted a little north, unexpected stone-wallish thing. (10s)
14) Solid trundle along the trail. Aaron finally caught up to me within meters of the flag.
15) Easy trail run, slowly losing distance to Aaron.
16) Took a second to reboot the o skills without any trails around. Went a little north, saw Aaron punching (20s)
17) Easy do
18) Saved a couple contours on Aaron, did some planning en route, and caught him right at the end.
19) Split up, both got epically lost, reunited saw ernst a number of times, PG and katia (caught ya?) caught up, we all punched together.
20) Trails. Dropped maybe 50m on Aaron.
21) Grinding it out. Passed Aaron in the woods when he took a wrong turn, got passed on the ski slopes. Tired knees hate downhills.
F) Man, slapping down this ski slope was the least fun finish leg ever.
Wish I had considered plain old running shoes instead of spikes. Took a bit of a beating. The entire map could use a sprinkling of rocky ground. Mapped rocky ground was a war zone. Some trails were brutal. Ate two gu. Very (very!) definitely helpful, but I'm worried I've killed my dog with the Gu-farts. Epic.
colorized splits. You know, in time for christmas. Got the Brothers Childs on a few splits, but only where they screwed up. Beat Magnus on a lot of splits. Just sayin'. Definitely didn't beat him on one, though.
interestingly, the bonus-paid-version-freebie at Winsplits for this race is the
pack index