Race Evaluation
US Night-o Champs: Red
TimGood
| 1. | Had felt bad most of the evening and had a terrible headache right up to race time. A lot of drinking, some asprin, and a trip to the bathroom and I was feeling a bit better with 5 minutes to spare before my start. Straight into woods and saw the big trail. did not see it on my map because the course obscured it, but could see it went to the clearings. Followed it and then into the control. No problems except for being hesitant. | ||||||
| 2. | Up the clearing and then out to the road. Down the road some and cut behind the building and across some more fields. New light is working great, control visible from way off. Light is a Performance Bike light 20W. Battery pack is much lighter than my old one which I retired after last years fiasco when I had connection problems and the light flashed on and off. | ||||||
| 3. | +00:30 | Across the fields. (much nicer than having to actually navigate thru woods) and along the fence. At the stream, the indistinct path I was on seemed to disappear so instead of hugging the fence I aimed for the control. Not sure what I was thinking since I went thru a bunch of green and rocky ground before reaching the field and along the fence would have been much quicker. Across more fields and I was able to see the reentrant on my approach so spiked the control. | |||||
| 4. | +00:40 | Up the far side and took the trail around. Thought the control was farther into the woods than it was so cut in early so I would not pass it. | |||||
| 5. | +00:30 | Back out to the clearing and ran along the edge. Cut in at the first trail thinking it was the second. Could tell by the angle and the first junction where I was so did not lose much time. Several people nearby hesitantly following the trails. I took the trails and cut over until on the trail below the control. Overshot the bend by a little and when I went up found myself in the cliffs left of the control. | |||||
| 6. | Into the woods on a bearing to catch the trail near the far edge. Out to clearing. Noticed it has started to sprinke. So far no problem with the the glasses fogging but a harder rain could cause trouble. | ||||||
| 7. | +05:00 | Blew this one. Could not decide which way to go, eventually opting to take trail around on the left. My initial hesitation got me too far right and once on the trail realized I was right of the bend. Left the trail and headed straight instead, trusting I would see the wet area or the control. There was also a cadet in the woods just in front of me. Made good time and found a control which was not ours. Unfortunately I did not see ours, nor the wet area I intended to use as an attack. Finally reached the wet area but after crossing it, hit the trail and knew I had missed the control. Not sure where on the trail I was so headed for the river hoping I was just a little off. Saw the pond and knew where I was. No trouble from there, just a lot of extra running. | |||||
| 8. | |||||||
| 9. | Back to the trail and took it to the field. Aimed at the clump in the middle taking a slight arc to the left to try and contour in. Tough going in the tall grass near the control. Mike Eglinski is running across the field with me. | ||||||
| 10. | Tried to stay with Mike and mostly went straight line thru the fields and ignored the trail. Only looked for it at the stream crossing. Almost a line at the punch. | ||||||
| 11. | No particular plan here. Legs were giving out and Mike had run away. Just went from trail to trail until I was thru everything and ran along the field to the control. | ||||||
| F. | Almost cramped trying to sprint so just ran in easy. Considering how I felt before the race I was pretty happy. Would have been nice to be in better shape on this runners course, but this is the type of night O I like. |
Total Time Lost - 00:06:40