Race Evaluation
Susquehanna Stumble: Long
Wyatt
| 1. | b) A bit straighter than most. Missed a little R but saw wide reentrant and Eddie running through it w/o finding anything, so turned. Was handed punch by Eddie, Brit was ~15 seconds ahead. | ||||||
| 2. | a) Traverse w/just a little climb to trail, up trail to forest, then more or less straight. Following Eddie. | ||||||
| 3. | Up to trail. Stayed on it a bit too long when attacked downhill, but knew it so turned right to see boulders/bag. | ||||||
| 4. | Say Eddie & Brit running away toward 4. Followed (just slightly downhill) until hillside. They climbed way too much and I traversed lower. Still, Eddie's fast, and he had quickly figured out he was too high, so he charged downhill and got the bag first, then Brit then me. | ||||||
| 5. | +03:30 | Leaving 4, I see the second pack behind us. Alexei, Greg, Randy & ?. Over the hilltop and down, Eddie and the Brit are getting away. I struggle to keep them in sight, but the rocks (and a mild L-ankle twist) keep my eyes on the ground. On rough bearing, not find line clearings, I'm pretty lost. Then I see Eddie way ahead (missing the bag as well?). Charge, but can't see him any more. Hit flat that doesn't make sense, hit trail 150m NNE of bag. Turn E (thinking I'm near 6...), then hit big uphill trail and turn up. Angle and size doesn't match 6 hypothesis, thennotice where I am, and recall the medium green I'd run around, diagonal back in (right past flat) to bag. No-one in sight (I think pack # 2 has passed me.) | |||||
| 6. | Down to small trail, traverse in counting reentrants. | ||||||
| 7. | Traverse, slightly up, pace/reentrant read from trail. Still no one in sight. | ||||||
| 8. | f) Exit along flat/slightly downhill, to trail, then up to bag. At f I see Alexei. | ||||||
| 9. | e) I lead Alexei contouring to e. He says others around. I thought I saw Randy at d. I don't know if he was ahead or behind. | ||||||
| 10. | d) Careful bearing, but then it's a bright bag & open woods. | ||||||
| 11. | +00:20 | Bounce off trail (oops...) but see Greg B. exitting c, so maybe I'm catching up? | |||||
| 12. | +00:30 | Exit more straight from c than Greg did, but end up cutting back L to trail bend. Decent. Bearing up from (R) trail bend, with glimpses of Greg & Alexei. They are L of where I think it is, but when I see them again, they are running hard R, toward 13 I think (actually toward 12), so I aim to where they turned, only to make the same mistake, and need to turn as well. | |||||
| 13. | Contour, down SW to trail, along trail for more than planned as running was good, then basically due W to bag, semi-reading reentrants, and clearly picking up plateaus near bag. | ||||||
| 14. | Up contour, then lots of contouring all the way there. I wonder if more directly up and over would have been better. No one in sight since 12. | ||||||
| 15. | Line, the trail past pool (I was getting sick of blueberry), then to trail, reentrant junc, and around R side of rocky spur to bag. | ||||||
| 16. | +00:30 | E to trail, along until right elev, than traverse in, not reading boulders all that well in the circle, and checking several. | |||||
| 17. | E/contour to small trail. 1.5km along small trail to bigger trail to saddle. Then sortof on line down to road. On this downhill, my L hamstring decides that it needs to start cramping (oh-no, I'm far from the end), but after the depth of Blueberry subsides, it recovers. Read road bends, then angle in through patchy green reading broad contour features, and picking up a few smaller rock/dirt items along the way. A little confused near end, but line of cliffs WSW of bag finally showed up to guide me in. | ||||||
| 18. | Thought I took a good compass/pace, but still missed short and to the R. Cliff quite readable though so found it pretty easily. Apparently Greg B was recovering from a bad exit from 18 and saw me near the bag. I still hadn't seen anyone for nearly an hour. | ||||||
| 19. | Long walk along cliffs. Couldn't run ex. a few steps although I knew I could run the same stuff earlier. Physical breakdown occuring faster than I thought. Family has a minor cold, maybe it was affecting me. Saw Greg B exiting bag. Drank a lot though so he was out a sight by the time I hit the field. | ||||||
| 20. | h) Traversed out a little low, hit trail, attacked from there. Field was slow. Saw Greg B. just overshoot bag and then turn back up to it, still ahead of me (I think he'd gotten i already). | ||||||
| 21. | g) Follow Greg pretty straight. | ||||||
| 22. | +01:20 | i) Greg goes toward j, so I turn back toward i, missing pretty low, mistaking one gap-in-rocks for another (and apparently coming quite close to h, where I see Randy!) Lack of rock and recognition of possible parallel error and I turn uphill to bag | |||||
| 23. | +01:00 | Staring at really big rocks, I overshot, saw bag way behind when checking nearby features. Afraid Randy will use these slops to catch up but don't see him. I think ihgj is better, esp. if you exit high on 19, avoiding the crappy field, and then traverse quickly. | |||||
| 24. | l) At aid stop, see Mihai who says I'm 4th behind Eddie, Brit & Alexia. What about Greg B? I think he must have skipped aid station (at later found that to be true.) GU and gatorade later, I take off down the road, 300m later, both legs cramp a little and I need to slow way down, to maybe 50% of normal Blue pace... Back up to 75% by end of leg, but no higher than that until much later. I was thinking about cutting a bit of the corner on the long trail-around, but with my hamstrings threatening, turning through blueberry, and the prospect of going through it up the same hill where my legs earlier cramped on the way down was prohibitive, so I stuck to the road. Saw Tim running by, opposite way. Apparently Randy saw me from aid station. Off trail at clearing, contour slightly downhill through low end of rocks, reading contours/rocks to bag. | ||||||
| 25. | +00:30 | k) Saw Greg B down below and shot down to bag on rough compass. Hit rocks 40 m N of bag, turned around and went back. | |||||
| 26. | m) Wobbly on the compass again, but checked several times and bag was pretty visible. No Balter in sight. Apparently m was his last of the bunch. | ||||||
| 27. | n) diagonal uphill. Easy attack, but tired. Saw Randy leaving n, but he still needed m, so I had a little gap. lnkm or lknm are probably better than what I did, but not by more than 30 seconds... | ||||||
| 28. | +00:15 | With Greg B a little ahead, and Randy a little behind, I still had incentive to run to the limit my legs would cooperate with (threat of cramping was still present, but I think the water at M - I drank a lot - was making things a little better.) Choosing n as my last of the bunch gave me a really long nice traverse slightly downhill all the way to the road bend. No one in sight front or back. Uphill wobbly (too far L, then too far R) but lost little time as a result | |||||
| F. | Tried to push, for Attackpoint rankings points only, not a place, as still no one was in sight. Apparently Alexei & Greg had finished ~3 minutes ahead of me, and 2 minutes after I finished, Randy came in. Congrats to Eddie on being very fit and using it well! |
Total Time Lost - 00:07:55