Race Evaluation
Hudson Highlander X:
Wyatt
| 1. | +00:20 | ~5th-10th along the trail. Leaders missed the turn and I said, 'trail' or something and Ross cut onto the first left turn right ahead of me. As trail approach the road again and faded, Ross got confused, and turned right. I stopped and figued to turn left as Greg B. yelled 'you got it' or something from the hill behind me. Led on the trail, took a wrong right turn then came back losing a 15 second gap. Stayed on trail longer than others but it turned out to be windy, rocky and narrow. Diagonalled up to 1 just after Greg B. and saw a herd off to my right. | |||||
| 2. | +00:15 | Down spur to road. Pass/get passed by Greg B. on road until just before it drops and I head into the forest with Greg right behind me. Basically due W the whole time, reading contours - hestiant on the way down until I noticed it was on the flat and I looked up to see the bag just as Greg B. yelled 'zdees' (here, I think :). | |||||
| 3. | Had planned my route, keeping spur to my right and hill on left - although edge of top of yellow hill was runnable so stayed there then dropped. Greg B. was behind but he'd dropped out of sight - apparently misreading the control area as a spur. | ||||||
| 4. | Pretty straight going around marsh to the right and contouring in. Apparently Florin did okay but the next pack followed each other way right. Drank ~5.5 cups, then punched bag and ran, figuring (correctly) that the King-of-the-mountain might count from punch-to-punch. | ||||||
| 5. | A little right at first, then found broad spur, confirming it by the depression in the flat area. Went left-up to little trail, then up trail a bit before heading straight again. Saw fire break and mini-spur to confirm I was on line. Gu & 2.5 cups of water. Left before seeing anyone (although apparently many people saw me.) | ||||||
| 6. | +00:30 | Ridgeline to left of green marsh, right of ridgeline through pine trees to unmapped road. Major hesitation, but contours matched and I recalled 'new firebreak' words at start, so kept going. Had to check code to see it wasn't on the cliffs. | |||||
| 7. | +00:30 | Exitted on line & hit new road again. Saw others behind near control. Up to hilltop then down bare rock, but missed right a bit standing still figuring things out. | |||||
| 8. | +00:15 | Bashed through on exit but ended up climbing due to downed trees, and had to contour through more cliffs than I should have. Saddle down toward bag with eyes open then worked well... | |||||
| 9. | Straight, aiming right at end to run on edge of (dry?) lake. ~5 cups of water. | ||||||
| 10. | +00:45 | Trail run. Hesitant & got lost at end of white-cross trail, but then hit the next trail on the black&white map and turned right, then north. Greg B. was gaining, but I didn't see him until the water stop. Drank 16 oz. weak Gookinaid, 1 GU, picked up 2 GU's to carry, and then had ~4 cups of water (15 hes., 30 route near last turn - better short-cut available - down spur - if I'd been looking. | |||||
| 11. | (10) Along marsh to indistinct trail then generally up hill and around the cliffy stuff to the left, finding a rock & control in back. | ||||||
| 12. | (11) A little right of line along the fairly broad/open reentrant/marsh. Remembered this exact same cliff from the team trails (approached from the west in that case.) | ||||||
| 13. | (12) SE to avoid climb of first edge then weaved E. Down creek to flat area and then climb up creek to 2nd hilltop. A little nervous but found bag way off the back. | ||||||
| 14. | Climb, then it'll be easy. Looked back on climb expecting to see Greg B. & thinking he must have made a mistake. From the top, I followed the hilltops on a rough bearing, then went around rocks to the right. | ||||||
| 15. | +00:20 | Looked like straight would have a lot more climb than if I leaned off to the left. Stopped a few times early as I was unsure of where I was, but better safe than lost. Wasn't quite sure where I was crossing the flattish area, but the hillside SW of 14 was reasonably distinct. Climbed and dropped down to 14. | |||||
| 16. | +01:15 | Knew I had to drop hard, then climb, but still went left on drop and was confused when I hit the trail after climbing, as I imagined I was nearer the line. After ~30+ seconds of standing still on the trail (as some hikers walked by), I figured out what had happened, and a run south on the trail quickly confirmed it at the turn. Didn't read much on trail until I hit the big marsh, then went S of the big hill, and dropped 1.5 contours too far before looping back up to the bag. | |||||
| 17. | +02:00 | Didn't see the line of white through pine swamp, so went right. Basically east via least resistance to the trail to the SW end of pine swamp Mtn., then up a shelf on the R-side of the mountain. Found it fine, but there was a lot more climb on this route than the left route. (2min). Drank ~ 6 cups, ate 1 GU. | |||||
| 18. | Right trails. First along the R-side of the marsh, via Times Square, past the burned area, through the saddle and down the not-so-rocky drop tothe marsh, contoured around back of hill after the marsh, as climbing didn't sound like fun at that point. Not sure if it was better, but I executed it fine. | ||||||
| 19. | Piecing together trail segments near the line. Dropped all the way to the marsh N of the bag before climbing up to 18, just to be sure where I was. An earlier cut would have saved only about 2 contours, and the trail was notably faster than the forest in that area. | ||||||
| 20. | Diagonal/dropping until hitting the marsh, then to road. Felt like I could still run okay on the road - quite surprised that I could move that well that far into this race. Had ~6-7 cups of water, 1 cup of Gookinaid, and a GU. | ||||||
| 21. | I thought they said this was 250m from the aid station, so I was a bit disappointed by the distance. But the streamers were nice so it wasn't bad. Running okay. | ||||||
| 22. | Going back into the forest, and blueberry here, after the last 10-15 minutes of relatively easy running was really hard. Legs weak, but not quite cramping. Walking on anything uphill or rough, so I wouldn't fall too hard when I cramped. But I didn't cramp. | ||||||
| 23. | (21). Walked down to the start. Via the easiest way I could find. Not running at all - too afraid to cramp and fall down the rocks. Jogged on trail, cut up to road, then went straight over. Around looks a lot easier, but I can't imagine it's actually faster. Although I was going really slow uphill and through the blueberry. At least the blueberry was fairly weak and brittle due to the relative drought. | ||||||
| 24. | (22) Tripped over the same piece of wire near the house as I tripped over on the walk to the start. Odd. Reading the map as I went toward 22, I thought the picnic table was lower than the feature, but hey, there was water on that table, and a bag, and that was fine. Drank 2-3 cups. Should've had more but was too tired to drink enough. | ||||||
| 25. | Jogged really slowly around on pavement. Paul said "There's Wyatt" in a way that suggested he'd expected me to come through there first. Which meant I'd likely had a reasonable lead (say 3+ mintues...) at the 2nd 106 crossing (it turned out to be 15 minutes, but I had no idea.) I also knew I was feeling really slow, and that anyone who could even jog reasonably at that point would be catching up. I consoled myself for the inevitability (I felt) of get passed by saying "at least try to win through 23". Along edge of water for quite a while, over one little hill then near 2nd little then through (very narrow) yellow gap near stream, right of rocks, up form-line spur and over to marsh edge. Wow. I won to 23. Let's try 24... | ||||||
| 26. | +01:00 | Jogged out through marsh. As long as it was flat and not rocky, I could still jog slowly. Decided to go over, as it was straigher, so cross reentrant and went up hill - to the powerline? - oops I was going S, not SE. From there a little more climb seemed line plenty and I contoured around at about the right height, over shooting a little, then looking behind that boulder behind/below me. | |||||
| 27. | +00:30 | Wow, still no one in sight. We'll let's try to win through 25. If I can do that, then just maybe... Across, then up, between hilltops, out spur, to right above control, but I wasn't quite sure, so I stood there a bit before checking below the hill in front of me. The bag was there. Phew. | |||||
| 28. | Straightish exit. Just as I exited I heard a big branch snap ~100m behind me. Way to loud to be wind branches falling. Damn. Well lets still try to win 26, because if I can, then it's only a parking lot to the finish. Through laurel. Around broad rocky reentrant to the left, looking back and still didn't see anyone. Maybe I can hold them off! Around edge of reentrant than across to hilltop/spur. | ||||||
| F. | Just drop & run, drop & run... Hit parking lot, looking back over my shoulder often, then finally eased up when I couldn't see anyone for 50m or so... Wow. I won the Highlander. Wow. "That was uncomfortable" brought a few laughs to the finish crew... Wow. A very good race on a beautiful day! |
Total Time Lost - 00:07:40