Race Evaluation
2011 US Classic Championships: Day 1 Green Y
jjcote
| 1. | Followed the trail W out of the clearing and went between the NW pond and the wall. Not very straight, but I guess it didn't hurt me that much. | ||||||
| 2. | To the road without crossing the marsh, and went about 300 m on the road, to about where the trail comes in from the W. Thought I'd be able to read my way in from there, but it didn't take long for me to lose contact. When I got close, I knew I was, but I couldn't figure out what was what and decided to keep going E to the marsh and attack from there. Found the marsh, found a cairn, and was able to get to the control from there. Escaped from that error with only about a minute lost. | ||||||
| 3. | Up to the trail, and I was pushing hard enough that I was completely misreading the map, because what I thought was the trail on the map was actually the stone wall. Confused by the trail spur (partially hidden by the purple line), but I knew I had to get to the clearing. Around the lake to the right, got to the spur cleanly, but didn't see a control. Took a step or two, saw rootstocks in the marsh, and went up onto the spur again where I found the control behind some vegetation. | ||||||
| 4. | Ran really hard in the general direction that I needed to go, using the long dimension of the marshes to steer. When I gt close, I slowed down a little, and saw a long, low hill to my right, which I hoped was the form-line hill on the map. If there was a rotstock on the far end, that would confirm it -- there was and I went directly to the control, with the fastest split (the only fastest one I got). | ||||||
| 5. | Great follow-up to a good leg -- ugh. I recognized this as a potentially very difficult leg, and told myself to be careful, but I didn;t listen. Across the dry ground to cross the marsh at what I intended to be the narrowest point. When I got to the other side, I was expecting to see green ahead, but it was white woods. I was actually too far south, and I would have seen the green if I had looked to my right, and I was only 150 m from the control, piece of cake. But based on where I thought I was, I turned left, looking for the green, and headed uphill. I had not looked ahead to the area of the control to see that I needed to drop off a hillside to go where I needed to, and ran off the edge of the map looking for something recognizable. When I finally realized that I need to go downhill, I followed the compass to the bottom of the bluff, and deduced that I was too far south, and was able to follow the bas of the slope back to the reentrant. Truly awful leg, 7 minutes lost, which is how much I ended up out of 1st place on M50. | ||||||
| 6. | Ran hard handrailing the stream. Hesitated when I reached an unmapped wall, and paused on the irregular hill before the control, but I could see the marsh to my right and knew I had to keep going. | ||||||
| 7. | Followed wall to road, and indistinct trail got me close. | ||||||
| 8. | Stayed a little to the right, up on the hillside, so that I could check off the walls. Shaky near the end, checked the hill 100 m south before going to the right one. | ||||||
| 9. | Bizarre leg. I was only 90 s slower than the leader, which seems incredible considering my route. Ran hard and crossed the trail at the clearing. That's a little off line, not so bad, but then I continued drifting that way and not reading the map enough to realize it. Crossed the indistinct trail without turning left, and when I got up on the hill I found a pond with an island in it. I knew that would be recognizable, and it was: the southernmost of the three ponds next to the start. Sheesh! Took the trail WNW from the start field, and did a great job running from the bend to the control, coming out of the green about 5 m to the left. | ||||||
| 10. | Spaced out and thought I was heading for the finish, but screwed that up and went in the wrong direction. These two mistakes canceled out and I was going in the right direction. Couldn't understand why I wasn't in rough open, or why I couldn't hear cars, or why it was taking so long. Halfway there I hit a stone wall and the light dawned on me. | ||||||
| F. | I guess there was a better way through this field than the way I went. I looked at my watch just after I finished, and I knew that this was not a good time, and in fact I was in third on M50, behind Tim and Kevin. At least I was ahead of Nadim. |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00