Race Evaluation
Hudson Highlander X:
PBricker
| 1. | Started slow, brief chat with Charlie, then went a bit faster and cut of the trail behind Pavlina. | ||||||
| 2. | Pavlina left the road early, I left later with Viktoria. We all met up at the control. | ||||||
| 3. | Pavlina and Viktoria looked like they were waiting for someone. I took off a veered a bit left, but easily corrected with other people in the vicinity. | ||||||
| 4. | +02:00 | Veered way right and mistook the right edge of the small marsh for the edge of the bigger swamp. Obvious something was wrong when I crosse the dry stream bed (and was alone!). As I headed back left, a crowd was entering and leaving the control. | |||||
| 5. | Lots of people around now. More or less with Peggy up to the trail, which we took for a bit, and then right to it. Saw Charlie and Glen leaving the control as I was coming in. | ||||||
| 6. | +03:00 | Everyone was going straight, but the trail around to left looked good to me. And it would have been fine if I hadn't blown by my attack point. Got confused when I saw the group leaving 6 thinking they were still going to 6. Charlie set me straight and I had to go back 150 meters. Poor map reading! | |||||
| 7. | +02:00 | With Glen Brake on this leg. Attacked from the trail going NW along the bare rock, but we were too far right and went down to the bare rock next to the swamp. Glen took off the wrong way here; I climbed back up to it. Couldn't see the flag until I was on top of it. | |||||
| 8. | On my own. Took trail, then along the left side of the knoll, down across the reentrant and spiked it. | ||||||
| 9. | Certainly the most enjoyable leg, running down the open spur. Saw Sam L. at the bottom preparing to climb back up 10 lines to the control. That was a costly miss! | ||||||
| 10. | My most creative leg! I spent a minute drinking water. Then took off (with David Levine, but quickly left him behind). I was very tentative, since the promised streamers were few and far between, and I have a history of wandering off trails. And that's just what happened somewhere after the white cross trail met the yellow trail. The sensible thing would have been to go back and look for blazes - might have lost 30 seconds, maybe 2 minutes at worst. But, no, I was in no mood to go backwards, so I decided to wing it to the road. Paul had said we could take any route, and that the aid station was at the crest of the road, so I tried to stay high and kept moving N or NNE. The terrain soon turned to thick undergrowth, and I was cursing my stupidity, but somehow I spiked the aid station and, best I can tell, didn't lose any time over the trail route (which was less direct). (My split could be off by a bit; I didn't punch until I left the aid station.) But could have been a disaster! | ||||||
| 11. | Peggy and Glen were still at the aid station when I arrived, so I had made up time on them. I was dismayed to find that the advertised gatorade didn't exist. Peggy came to the rescue and let me finish her bottle. I didn't tarry, and took off after Peggy and Glen. I didn't want to do Surebridge alone if I could help it. We caught up to Viktoria and Pavlina at the control. Glen T dropped back. | ||||||
| 12. | Easy, but slow. | ||||||
| 13. | Hard time reading the map, but the streams made this one easy. Punched ahead of Peggy. | ||||||
| 14. | I took a somewhat more southernly route than Peggy, but we met up at the control. | ||||||
| 15. | Behind Peggy now. As we near the control, I can see Pavlina and Viktoria a bit ahead. Somewhere on this leg, my feet slipped out going down a hill, but my left foot caught and I twisted my knee. Walked it off and was able to ignore it for most of the race; but it's still sore as I write (on Wed.) | ||||||
| 16. | After punching 14, I looked up and was being mooned by Pavlina! (Well, I don't suppose that was her intention.) Got to the trail with Peggy up ahead. She left the trail earler than me. When I left the trail near the swamp, there was a lot of deadlfall and climbing over it my calf seized into a massive knot. Ouch. Took some time for the muscle to relax. I spiked the control, but was now alone. | ||||||
| 17. | But not for long, As I headed north to the trail, I met with Bernie who I had noticed benind Peggy and I for most of this map; he must have passed me when I cramped. As we went to go through the opening in the Pine Swamp, we saw a groupl heading to 17. | ||||||
| 18. | +02:00 | My calf was hurting, my feet were cramping. I took five minutes here drinking about 7 cups of water and discussing possible routes with Bernie. He knew the trails well (from AR), so I just deferred to him and we took the White Dot trail from Times Square, and then trails around to the south of the line. This was very scenic, but slow. We mostly walked. Didn't feel like I was racing any more. We came to the control from the S and dropped to low and had to climb back for it. Jeremy was coming in as we left, and announced (to our surprise) "J-J is behind me". | |||||
| 19. | +01:00 | I went ahead of the others, taking the trail down to the beginning of the marsh, but as I neared the circle, I was on the knoll left of the one I thought, and went too far. As I was coming back for it, Bernie was leaving. Met up with J-J at the control, looking weary and downtrodden. | |||||
| 20. | Diagonally down the steep hill to the marsh and the road. Well behind J-J going down, but left him behind on the road by doing some jogging. | ||||||
| 21. | Spent about 7 minutes at the aid station trying to choke down half a power bar (and some advil). Jeff S. was there looking done in. Bernie and J-J showed up soon. I asked how far ahead Charlie was and found out he hadn't come through yet. It struck me I was probably first "master" leaving the station, but that didn't motivate me to move any faster. Walked the trail with J-J and Bernie. Almost took a wrong turn, even though it was streamered. | ||||||
| 22. | Straight. I moved ahead, but we were all a bit low, as was obvious when we saw Sharon above, leaving the control, and I was last to punch. | ||||||
| 23. | Consensus was that the power line would be a bad idea. I followed J-J down across the road and then contoured around the hill. I hesitated, when I couldn't see the cliff from above, but then went right to it. J-J was cramping and moaning. The distinctive sounds reminded me of the end of the rogaine we did together last year in AZ. | ||||||
| 24. | We all ran some on this downhill and open leg. I went right of line and came in just after J-J and Bernie, who went straighter. | ||||||
| 25. | Followed the shore a ways, then cut up along the boulder field. Though I'm walking, I'm gradually leaving J-J and Bernie behind. As I near the control, I see Steve Olafson up ahead, but at the bigger marsh that's too low. I realize the mistake in time and cut up right to it. | ||||||
| 26. | Steve catches up and we do this leg together, going around to the right to save some climb. | ||||||
| 27. | Go pretty straight, reading the map well, and spike it. Steve a bit off to the left. | ||||||
| 28. | +01:00 | I go right of line to avoid some green, but then end up coming in a little low. Steve gets there first, and I climb up to it. | |||||
| F. | Jogging in. Would have been interesting if Charlie had caught me here! (He was just over a minute back and had passed Bernie and J-J.) |
Total Time Lost - 00:11:00