Race Evaluation
SLOC West Tyson: Advanced
hkleaf
| 1. |
Read map too late +00:20 | Took the trail straight and then off onto the dried stream bed for some fast running. But overran the control slightly by staying too low. Caught sight of the large boulder up above just in time, but then proceeded with the face-plant injuring my arm. Lost a little bid of time gathering myself there. | |||||
| 2. | Drifted lower again along the contour. Had to climb up the reentrant for the control. | ||||||
| 3. | Took a route slightly left of straight line and came up to the eastern end of the saddle. Saw Rick and another guy at the control. | ||||||
| 4. | Contoured around a bit while gradually climbing. Passed just E of the pit, then around the big spur before curving along the upper plateau/shelf to the control. Rick was just off to the side for most of this leg, but missed seeing the control and overran it a bit. | ||||||
| 5. |
Lacked confidence Hesitated Unused to terrain +00:30 | Earlier, I had considered going to #16 first, but contouring along N of #4 seems faster. So that's what I did. Dropping down the cliff towards the railroad tracks at its most gradual part (just W of the major reentrant). Hesitated a bit here as the terrain looked so drastically different. Then ran along the edge of field/track to the supposed tunnel SE of #10 (my AP). Didn't see the tunnel, but was sure where I was anyway. Then tried following the "stream" to the junction. Took a little longer than I'd like finding this one. | |||||
| 6. |
Did not follow plan Ran too fast Bad compass work +00:15 | #13 was next. Had planned to take a straight bearing from #10, but went way off to the NW towards the river. Realized what happened and switched to plan B - hitting the trail and taking it to the control. | |||||
| 7. |
Bad distance judgement Lacked confidence Hesitated +00:15 | #11. Went back out to the trail and took a bearing from the bend. I was reading the contours pretty well, only I slowed down and hesitated too much before I reached the right distance. Also drifted a bit left (to the edge of circle). | |||||
| 8. |
No attack point Bad compass work +00:45 | #12. Bad compass work again. Drifted left once more (this seems to be a recurring problem with the thumb compass, will need to work on correcting it) and used the pond as my catching feature. But it was slow going thru/around some stuff to finally get to the control. Saw Rudy here. | |||||
| 9. | #14. A rough compass work. No big problem this time, but definitely wasn't confident with my approach. It was more a case of me spotting the control from afar than the bearing being accurate. The "pond" was non-existant! Saw a couple more guys going in the opposite direction. Guess they're all doing the score-o loop clockwise. | ||||||
| 10. |
Lacked confidence | #15. Thought about another direct bearing, but with my confidence lacking I opted for the safer route (right) along the trail and then up the "stream" to the spur. | |||||
| 11. |
Did not follow plan Did not check features en route Took a chance Ran too fast Bad map reading Confused parallel features Could not relocate Not thinking clearly Lacked confidence Hesitated Frustrated +08:30 | The big boom! Did a lot of things wrong here. The originally plan was to go right and run along the trail to its bend, then take the branch across rough open towards the tunnel at #16. What actually happened was I stayed low along the form line (seemed like good enough running there) and popped out onto the trail E of the intended bend. I then compounded the mistake by making a left and running to the next bend (250m east). A check of my compass would've told me that I'm heading in the wrong direction, but I was too busy running to realize my mistake. A search of the distinct big tree in middle of field would've also easily helped right my bearings. In my brain-dead state though, I didn't even see that lone green x amidst all the yellow. When I hit the wrong trail bend, I searched up and down unsuccessfully for the branch trail that'd take me across field. My gut then was telling me I was too far east, but my brain wouldn't listen, and convinced my body to plunge straight ahead into the 7ft tall grass field in hopes of coming out at the opposite side in one piece. I made it, but was still unsure of my location. I saw Rick running west along the forest edge and somehow deduced that wasn't the way I wanted. So I bounced along to the left hoping to find #16. Again, a quick check on my compass would've told me I was heading in the wrong direction once again, but at that moment I was basically running without my brain. It was another minute or two before I finally made sense of the map, backtracked myself along the field's edge, and at last onto #16 at the tunnel's end! Sad sad execution. | |||||
| 12. |
Bad route choice Did not plan ahead Bad map reading Tired +01:30 | To #6. Still somewhat in my brain-dead state, I didn't realize just how steep the cliff was. By the time I did, my momentum had carried me on the right hand route along the cliff base that was 300m long! (In hind sight, it would've been faster to go directly S out of #16 and quickly up the slope.) When I finally got to the end, I managed to crawl up the slope, passed another cliff, and contoured along to the control. I somehow caught up to Rick again, but David has also caught up with both of us. | |||||
| 13. |
Tired +02:00 | As David sped up ahead to #7, I tried to keep him in sight. The approach wasn't too difficult, just quite physical up, down, and along the hillside. The three of us all converged to the rock feature we thought was on the map, but there was no control. After a brief search, David took off for #8 while Rick and I continued WNW along the hillside. I finally spotted the flag. It was misplaced by about 30-40m on a much smaller rock feature (unmapped). | |||||
| 14. | +00:10 | Up and over the saddle, then contoured along the hillside. Lost a little bit of time searching for the missing punch. | |||||
| 15. |
Bad route choice Did not plan ahead Bad compass work Lacked confidence +01:30 | Up one of the reentrants to the trail near knoll. Then ran it around to southern knoll before following red line down the hill. Drifted west as I hit the powerline. Relocated at trail/stream junction, then contoured along W side of stream. Only I was a couple lines too low, and was surprised to hit the powerline once again. Quickly figured out what I did, but was very cautious then heading to the control. | |||||
| F. | Straight blast down the hill to the finish. |
Total Time Lost - 00:15:45