Race Evaluation
Blue Hills Traverse:
levitin
| 1. | |||||||
| 2. | Down the steep hillside, wondering if my life insurance premiums are paid up. On the trail to 2, I began to read the map. Turned N off the trail past the stony ground. | ||||||
| 3. | I executed my own plan en route to 3, contouring around. Past the small knoll and in. | ||||||
| 4. | Punched in a group with Ed Kotowski, Charlie DeWeese, and Scott Turner. Hacked my watch late, after having left the flag. | ||||||
| 5. | Pushed ahead of Sam and Hillary on the trail up from the road. Followed Terry Keegan and Charlie just W of the line, over the hilltop to the crappy trail E of Chickatawbut. Along the trail, we passed Ed Kotowski, who had run next to the road shoulder and made up some time. Charlie and Terry disappeared off the front. At the trail T we went up the slope and got confused amongst the similar looking knolls. | ||||||
| 6. | I contoured N of the hilltop and slowed down to look for the flag too soon. For my abilities, the longer South route would have given me a better set of features to stay in contact with and attack from. | ||||||
| 7. | Straight. Crossing over the last spur I got too low and encountered the stone wall considerably farther E than I was expecting. Saw Bill Bryant somewhere along here. | ||||||
| 8. | Took path farther along than the others running around. I saw some jumping off at places where I could not fix their positions exactly, so I ran to the path junction and down the reentrant, which was a lot more overgrown than it looked on the map. Surprise, surprise. Saw a lot of folks coming N up the reentrant, including Terry. | ||||||
| 9. | Decided to go W around the green and up the reentrant just past it, figuring it couldn't be worse than the one I'd used down from the trail jct. Got to the E-W trail but without an exact fix. Went W to the stream crossing and in, where I encountered Ed coming in a different direction. He was in the right reentrant; I was one off. | ||||||
| 10. | Feeling a bit shaky navigationally, I used the stone wall but thought there might have been a better way. I saw others higher up the hill, taking a more direct route, but I came in off the wall bend with no trouble. | ||||||
| 11. | Yee-hah. Saw Susie. I left the path earlier than Susie, got distracted by the group around the food and didn't punch until Jeff Saeger's lament "Why don't people read their clue sheets?" made it into my thick head. By this time, Susie had already punched. Liz said I was 25th; I said Ed was about a minute behind me. | ||||||
| 12. | Crossed the road with Susie, and I took off up the big spur. My compass work must have been off, because I ran across Susie's path on her right, going to my left, and both of us were still too low on the hill to hit the control. Saw Charlie again and I thought I saw Pete B. (?) | ||||||
| 13. | Once again with Terry and Charlie. Too much following, not enough thinking. | ||||||
| 14. | |||||||
| 15. | Encountered Scott Turner, while I must have been in the reentrant NE of the flag. | ||||||
| 16. | Charlie, Terry, and Scott pulled away on the trail from 15; I stopped to tie my shoe. I came in from the rock cluster, and was surprised to see Susie (I think) had decided to use the same attack point. Scott left before we punched. I think Terry was around here too. | ||||||
| 17. | With Terry, I opted to go NW on the first trail, turn SW until the stream (thankfully dry) and in at the large boulders. I think I turned off too soon or too sharply; Susie punched first. | ||||||
| 18. | Followed Susie and Terry just S of the line. | ||||||
| 19. | More following, but I'm running out of gas. | ||||||
| 20. | On the paved path, Terry went off the front, then Susie, then another guy I didn't recognize. Past the stables, cut in past the earthbank, followed the group in. At this point I was pushing to stay in contact, beginning to despair about my ability to bring it home if separated. | ||||||
| 21. | Trail N, Trail W, and in. | ||||||
| 22. | Trail N, turned W at the rootstock (I didn't see the trail, but Susie recognized it) and straight in from the junction. The open area isn't very open any more. | ||||||
| 23. | Roughly straight to the E-most ski slop, and Terry, Susie and one more pushed straight toward the control. I had no idea how they were fixing their position up the slope, and decided to run down the slope, along the trail, and up the 2nd slope. I got in and out before them. | ||||||
| 24. | I saw Scott ahead of me on the ski slope near the road; I tried to make up time on the path, but he was out of sight when I got to the road. I got a bit confused at the summit of Big Blue, but the view was fantastic. I was trying to go down the SE trail, E of the line, but I'm not sure I was ever on it. After quite a bit of descending I was badly out of contact and about to bail when I saw Scott nearby. Our notions of where we were were not very close, but in fact we were within about 20m of the flag. | ||||||
| 25. | Followed Scott. | ||||||
| 26. | Brain hazy, legs starting to cramp, I was pretty sure we were quite far enough up the slope that the control was below us. Scott found it above and ran off. | ||||||
| 27. | Immediately after punching I tripped and my calf cramped; I stretched it out for a moment. I told 2 other guys the control was up-slope as I descended. | ||||||
| F. | 3:41:00; slower than I hoped. Average HR 161 a testament to my poor cardiac fitness; a new HR max of 185. Glad to be done. |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00