Race Evaluation
Hudson Highlander: Highlander
jjcote
| 1. | Started with the crowd, then took a straighter route through open woods, and arrived with a crowd that included a lot of cadets. I was wondering if my years were advancing enough that I'd either see a lot of them, or finish behind them, but before long they were mostly well behind. | ||||||
| 2. | Surprised to see a lot of people heading left, when right looked so much better. Not far behind the likes of Alex, Ari, Stefan, and Alan for the road run and the trip down the valley, so I was in fine shape until a slight miss and a bad recovery put me five mintes down on that crowd, while another pack caught up. | ||||||
| 3. | Making my way back up through the pack, and got myself in the vicinity of Joe, Bernie, Daniel, Kseniya, Tori, and Lina, all of whom I would see a lot more of over the next few hours. | ||||||
| 4. | Various routes on this one, we split up a bunch, though the girls were sticking tightly together. Somebody else who I had been with earlier (Tristan, I think) was just ahead of me, but pulling away. | ||||||
| 5. | Passed Joe for I think the last time here, and I almost headed for a picnic group that I mistook for the aid station (it wasn't anywhere close). I think I was in 11th when I arrived, but I turned around and saw a whole lot of people right on my tail. | ||||||
| 6. | Only a brief stop to drink and I took of leading the pack on the trail run, with I think Dave Pruden next in line. I was holding my position until I happened upon what looked like trail junction next to a shelter building. I stopped, looking for the building, and couldn't find it on the map, which allowed everyone to pass me. I followed, catching up to Tori, then on a downhill stretch I folded my right ankle over hard. I kept on running with a pronounced limp. Ow ow ow. | ||||||
| 7. | Everyone else paused for a drink at the aid station, but I ignore my bottle of Ethan-All and just punched and continued, moving back up in terms of position. | ||||||
| 8. | Maybe a couple of hundred meters in front, I could see the pack coming as I approached the control. | ||||||
| 9. | Took the right-hand route and was on my own. Slight pause when I got stuck above a tall cliff and had to back up, and I was being a little too careful, since the control was pretty obvious, though the terrain I was going through was complex. Saw Stefan coming out as I was approaching. | ||||||
| 10. | Headed off in the right direction without a real plan, thinking I'd just go where the terrain took me. The route would have been fine but for the fact that the vegetation was way thicker than mapped. I was going between two marshes and had to back out because it was impenetrable, and go the other way around the last one. Then the yellow near the control was also not accurate, and I went on a little wander.. Spotted a vetting streamer on a different cliff and checked it out, then spotted the one with the control. The pack had gotten by me, and I saw Dave for the last time here. | ||||||
| 11. | Caught back up with the rest of them, and when the girls hesitated near some big cliffs I just pushed on ahead and led briefly. The lead shifted around a bunch, but at the end it was me and Tori in front going in to the control. | ||||||
| 12. | Kind of easy leg, but we hooked too far around the hill, not wanting to climb over it, and had to climb back up the reentrant beyond. | ||||||
| 13. | Kseniya and Lina were in fron and headed what looked to me to be too far left when we got to some cliffs, and I went more right and heard Bernie say that was the right move. But soon he and I and Tori and Daniel we mired in green under the power line, surrounded by either green or swamp. Some of the green had thorns, so we took the lesser evil and waded out of our predicament. Then we took the wimpy roundabout trail route the rest of the way. | ||||||
| 14. | Tori and I led around the end of the lake, though Kseniya and Lina were somewhere out ahead. I think I was the first one in. | ||||||
| 15. | Tori was moving a bit more strongly as we approached the aid station and caught up with K &L. | ||||||
| 16. | I had wrenched my ankle several more times, and decided to stop and put on the ActiveAnkle I had sent out with my bag of drinks, which put me at the back of the pack. Daniel and I went way too far left as we approached the parking lot and got slowed down by a cliff. I could see everybody out ahead of me except Tori, who had gotten a late burst of energy. | ||||||
| 17. | With Daniel, Bernie ahead, and K & L out at my horizon. | ||||||
| 18. | More of the same. | ||||||
| 19. | I had gotten something in my shoe when I put on the ankle brace, so I had to stop and dump it out. That put me well in the back of the bunch, with only Daniel in sight. | ||||||
| 20. | I slowly gained on Daniel, until I caught him at the control. | ||||||
| 21. | I seemed to be reading the details better, and led Daniel into this one. | ||||||
| 22. | I knew that it was possible to get through under the dam (well, depending on water levels) from my extensive experience here in 1993, so that was the way we went. On the other side, I told Daniel to go on ahead if he wanted, because I was stuck in first gear. I was slightly behind him for the latter part of the leg, but I again read the details better. I was heading straight for it and he was too high, when he looked to see where I was going and spotted it ahead of me. | ||||||
| 23. | I was leading until I hesitated just before the end to try and read the complicated stuff, but it was indeed just ahead. | ||||||
| 24. | Neither of us took a particularly great route here, but he had a little more energy and led at the end. | ||||||
| F. | I didn't know if Daniel would wait up to finish together, but he pulled out a finishing kick. So I did as well, hoping that there would be two finish boxes, and there were. I sprinted for the one on the right since he was going left, and reached it at whatr appeared to me to be the same instant. The results show me as a second ahead, but I attribute that to imperfect synchronization of the boxes; it was a tie. |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00