Race Evaluation
GAOC: GA Navigator Club - New Manchester: Red Day 2
Nadim
| 1. |
Bad compass work +00:20 | Started with Mary Jones who was running green. Using Peggy's map from 5 years ago and the course clues, I had predicted the location of this control the night before. I wanted to cross the creek and hit the trail a little to the right of a straight line. However, going down I was worried about going too far right and instead drifted left going down the hill. After crossing the creek, I found myself just to the right of the cliff near the river. Though I didn't see the river, this was far left of the line. The cliff was enough to put me back on track up to the saddle. | |||||
| 2. | Studying the park map the night before had helped me again on this route. I realized right away to avoid the climbs, especially the one at the pond on the straight line route. My route went up the ridge to the right. The ride was slow at first due to downfall. I was surprised how tired I was already--an indication of how bad out of shape I'm in. I passed Don Davis before the road opened up. As Peggy clued me in later, I should have watched for the conditions of the green area on the right as I passed the house--I didn't and was instead surprised I'd passed the house without really noticing the bend in the road. After turning left on the road, a fit looking teenager came-in at the next intersection. We jockeyed down the road but I pulled away with him following me at the end of the road onto the ride and then the reentrant to the control. | ||||||
| 3. | I rushed out to get away from the teenager. I ruled out climbing around as being too far with similar climb. Going mostly straight, I walked up last the steep hill into the pines. The vegetation seemed to go on farther than I thought it would but I cleared the pines and hit the reentrant just below the control. | ||||||
| 4. | Very tired walking, then running up the ride, I hit the road and saw two older men ahead of me. With them ahead, we all left the road about the same time dropping into the reentrant. I closed the gap, went a bit too far horizontally, passing one person, then saw the control directly below. I sprinted to it getting there just before both of them. | ||||||
| 5. |
Took a chance Bad map reading Confused parallel features +02:15 | I ran down the reentrant on a ride, past the ruins, I planned go across the junction of reentrants and up the long one to the saddle at the end of it. While climbing it, I thought that going up the reentrant to the saddle would take me to the right of a straight line. I risked a straighter path and mistook the top of the ridge for the saddle I was looking for. I cut left expecting to see the control but did not. I saw root stock below me and thought the control could be hidden behind one--it wasn't. I realized I was in the wrong reeentrant so I cut right over a ridge and checked out a couple more root stocks before finding my way back up to the control. | |||||
| 6. | Going straight would have taken me into a large downed oak. Since yesterday I lost time going down to go around an obstacle, I went up this time. After passing the tree, I rough compassed down. Not looking at the map, my memory told me the control was at the stream but not seeing it, I crossed because I saw others ahead crossing. Going between the reentrants, I saw it finally. | ||||||
| 7. | I took a bad bearing leaving #6, but corrected and hit the road and power lines. On the run, I could read better on the road and could plan the route better. My first thought was to go down the ridge to the pond, then contour over. Instead, I saw a better route turning left at a road intersection and coming down the ride on the ridge. I was pretty dog tired recovered going down the ridge to the reentrant and the control. | ||||||
| 8. |
Did not follow plan +01:15 | I had seen the trail on the high side so planned to sort of contour over the ridge and take it. When I hit the trail dropping to the river, I thought I might have contoured too far left. Tiredness and doubt prevailed so I checked below, finding myself at the river before I knew it. Committed, I stayed low along the river where the running was bad. Roots, rocks and up and downs kept it slow and tiring. I reached the reentrant and saw another fit looking teenager above whom I thought was the same one I saw on the way to #2. I found out afterward he wasn't. As we walked up he tried to tell me this was the only way to attack this one. I got there just behind him. Time lost for bad execution of route choice. | |||||
| 9. |
Bad compass work +00:20 | More walking up the reentrant to the trail, I finally could jog a little at the ride. The teenager was to the right of me and I got ahead by the time we reached the road. I cut into the woods before the green, crossed the first reentrant and found myselft too wide left. I had to come back right, luck to have seen the control but I stayed ahead of the teenager. | |||||
| 10. |
Did not check features en route Bad compass work Confused parallel features +02:00 | Rushing off again to get away from the teenager, I didn't set a great bearing. At the fence, I had to go right to find a gap. I came through the ruins w/the teenager behind me. Mistaking the house I saw for the shed on the map, I kept straight. I was pleased to find the green easily passable. I saw a reentrant/gully on my right. It was the correct one but my mistaken departure from the road lead me to think I was now somehow too far right. I cut left, found a gully and saw others converging on it. I sprinted down the gully but the others got there ahead and were slow punching. When it was my turn, I read code #601 and realized my mistake. The teenager was now right there too having followed me. The night before, I had also predicted the location of this control from the clues so I knew instinctively that the double gully was to my right. I took off and found it quickly from there. | |||||
| 11. |
Read map too late +00:15 | The teenager was right behind me again. I had predicted this control location too from the clues so ran mostly on memory. I stayed to the left of the reentrant, seeing others including the teenager to my right in it. I should have read my map because when I saw the road and then the control, I had to come over 60M in a right angle. I got there ahead of the teenager and just behind Kelsey Breseman. | |||||
| F. | I caught Kelsey (about 12 years old) just past where we left the road. I thought I'd left her when I heard footsteps from behind! That motivated me to leap past another orienteer and sprint to the finish. I was pleased with my place. I had wanted to make up the 22 seconds and some of the 6 minutes from day 1 and catch Eric Buckley and David Frei respectively but I made too many mistakes. I was pleased with my 5th fastest time on the course and 2nd in M40 at an A-Meet. As others said afterward, the GNC's relatively easy navigation shows who's in-shape and who's not (I didn't feel in-shape) but also motivates us all to get in-shape. |
Total Time Lost - 00:06:25