Race Evaluation
US Team Fundraiser: Red
Nadim
| 1. | +00:25 | Tentative going around some early knolls. Up onto the trail after crossing the last reentrant I passed the control a little. Seeing Suzanne Armstrong to my left I looked right and saw the control. Mike Minium punched right after me. | |||||
| 2. | Having missed on #1 a little I thought to read more carefully but also wanted to get away from Mike M. With open running and flatish ground I decided to just run faster keeping my bearing carefully and it worked. | ||||||
| 3. | +01:45 | I thought to go around the green area to the left. I set a bad bearing going too far left and then tried correcting. Along the way I lost track of where I was by not being careful and figured I should just go to the road anyway. I S-curved my way there hitting just right of the gate. I cut left to the trailhead and followed it all the way on the south side of the creek to the big bend. I skipped the first reentrant on my right then crossed the creek and climbed the second reentrant to the top. I cut left from there and dropped into the control. This long winded story sums up to a poor route choice. Going right would have been better but I didn't wait long at #2 knowing that Mike Minium was somewhere near behind. | |||||
| 4. | Straight down the reentrant then up over the two knolls. I paused at the formline reentrant having not read it on the map earlier. I then kept straight to the control. | ||||||
| 5. | +00:20 | I left going down the left side of the reentrant toward the creek. I passed Heidi on the way and wondered if she punched #4--I hoped she'd realize I was leaving it. I thought I was in one reentrant to the right so I was looking to the left while approaching the stream. I didn't see it so I stopped and eventually saw it to my right. I was unsure of it. Trying to cross the creek, I didn't want to get wet with a long way to run so I backed-up to get a better running start. A teenager followed behind me with no hesitation and I beat him to the control. | |||||
| 6. | Leaving #5 with the teen behind me I set of at a good pace along the creek. I saw what I thought was Heidi Onkst ahead but couldn't gain much ground--it probably wasn't her from what she said. The person disappeard when I rounded up an earth bank on the stream. Going on, I cut right up the trail and crossed over at the saddle to get to the road. After going up the road, I cut left at the trail. I passed the first reentrant and cut right up the spur/ridge. I was able to run most of the way up and skirted around some of the knolls along the way. | ||||||
| 7. | +00:25 | I left going down a reentrant to the creek. Climbing up the next ridge I ran half way and passed an Army runner before walking the rest. I changed plans cutting right on the trail instead of dropping down into the next valley on bearing. This was more climb but runnable. I almost missed the turn left then lamented taking the trail when I saw how far down I had to drop to the saddle. Following the trail up the next ridge I stayed on the trail too long, not seeing a kink in the trail as drawn on the map. I turned around at the big reentrant to come back to the correct one. | |||||
| 8. | Down the reentrant mostly on the left side. | ||||||
| 9. | I stopped at #8 34 seconds for a Gu and water. As I was leaving Mathias came-in to #8. I rounded the knoll on the right and climbed up to the knolls but got a little left. Coming back, Mathias got there just ahead of me. | ||||||
| 10. | Up the long hill I caught Mathias and got ahead a few steps. We hit the diagonal trail near the top of the ridge. I went down the trail and up the next ridge as Mathias went the shorter route across the reentrant behind me. Cutting right on the ridge after seeing Mary Jones, I found the running better than I'd hoped. Mathias popped out on my right a step ahead. We dropped left into the control. | ||||||
| 11. | Mathias went straight down as I contoured over before dropping to save climb. We cut right up the hill and hit the first rocks. We were both surprised to see it far up ahead instead of near. I got there first. | ||||||
| 12. | I set out to contour over with Mathias behind me. After crossing the trail, Will Hawkins appeared on my right. Vadim was also in pursuit. I kept reading reentrants and wondering if I should really just drop down to the stream for better running ground. I justified staying up by thinking I'd be better able to count the rocky areas and the upper reentrants. In retrospect I could have run lower and counted reentrants on the other side of the creek. As Will and Vadim went off to my right I kept going and got a few more steps ahead of Mathias. Nearing the control I looked down and saw the control 2-3 contours below and ahead. I there just ahead of Mathias and was glad I didn't overrun the control using this risky approach. | ||||||
| 13. | Down to the creek I got passed by a Blue course runner. Going up the reentrant I passed him back by staying to the left a bit then cutting right after the control was in view. | ||||||
| 14. | +00:40 | I headed to the trail and turned left reasoning that cutting across the giant reentrant to the road was too slow. I got to the parking lot then cut right and left to the building. I was glad to get to the outside of the uncrossable wall which I hadn't known was uncrossable. Eventually cutting back to the trail, I decended and saw Mathias coming down the road and getting into the woods ahead of me. I got confused with the trails a little but corrected and chased Mathias, gaining with a long stride downhill in the open woods. | |||||
| 15. | +00:40 | I wanted to catch Mathias who had gone left. I didn't read the map long enough to see the road route to the right. As we climbed the first hill with our hands as well as our feet after going around the out-of-bounds area, Mathias said we should have gone around on the road--oh well. I was tentative with the navigation after that and lost some ground to Mathias. I felt strong moving over the spurs. | |||||
| 16. | Straight to catch Mathias but he was too far ahead. | ||||||
| F. | A good effort. |
Total Time Lost - 00:04:15