Race Evaluation
Blue Hills Traverse: Traverse
jima
| 1. | By luck of the draw and following the meet director closely, was blessed with a very favorable start position, 3d or 4th from the front. The first few went right at the first junction, I was the 2d to go left just behind Pavlina. Total lack of training since the Boulder Dash took its toll, and I stepped aside to let some faster folks by. Don't want to start too fast and really fade at the end. Count trail junctions- left, right, left, straight, right the follow the crowd in just past the stony ground. Momentarily baffled by the lower boulder covered by the circle, but then saw the flag and up to it. | ||||||
| 2. | Through the green, past tip of marsh, cross trail and follow the group in. | ||||||
| 3. | Most of group stayed straight, I headed right of the line, cross trail just above the 3 boulders, up the side of the reentrant, see some folks obviously too high as I loop in from the north. Jeff Saeger standing by the control, a few folks in sight ahead of me. | ||||||
| 4. | A little right of the line, don't remember seeing the first trail, cross lower one by the boulder. Across marsh, following group up in. | ||||||
| 5. | Group pulling away. Cross 2 trails, pretty much staying on line. | ||||||
| 6. | Hit the trail by the junction to the south, correct and go in just north of the reentrant, see grou by the control. Conscious of flowing into and out of the control, but then see the water jugs and stop for a drink.. See JJ coming in from the wrong direction as I leave, looks like he's coming straight from #4. | ||||||
| 7. | Pretty much straight line. Catch up to a few from the group in front of me. | ||||||
| 8. | Opt for the trails to the right to avoid the climb. Back and forth with a couple of people, trailing Sam Levitin most of the way. Almost miss the small trail down from from the top of the hill - cut in a little below it. | ||||||
| 9. | Power lines, over to the road, see a few folks ahead of me heading up the hill. Go in from just past the trail junction, vegatation not matching up. About ready to get nervous when I see the boulder and control just a little uphill. | ||||||
| 10. | Diagonally up to the trail, cut due west near the apex of the trail by the stone wall. Hit the trail, turn south, relocate by the reentrant and in. | ||||||
| 11. | Down to the road, follow it around and cut the corner. Bob Lux coming up behind me. Out onto the spur, see Scott Turner and someone on his heels coming in also. | ||||||
| 12. | Scott and his follower head straight, I go along the trail for a bit and cut over, right behind Tony Federer. | ||||||
| 13. | Scott heads up the trail, I follow starting to walk a bit, Tony runs down the road shoulder. Scott stays on the trail longer, I head over the top of the knoll. Scott's gone when I get to the control, Tony punches just ahead of me, Bob Lux coming up from the road. | ||||||
| 14. | Trudge up the hill, Tony still in sight. He starts running along the flat, takes me a bit longer to get my legs moving. In fromthe trail junction, see Tony - is he heading into or out of the control?? Look left and see it. | ||||||
| 15. | +05:00 | Follow Tony's direction out of the control (N), Bob Lux not far behind, stop to figure out the best way down to the trail by the small fenced in area. Run diagonally down to the trail, not moving too bad, but I feel a blister developing on my left heel. When I get to the trail, can see Tony in the distance. Have to walk some of the uphills, even the smaller ones. Hear someone behind me, expect it to be Bob Lux, but it's J-J. Hit the larger trail, then followed J-J as we cut the corner. I decided I didn't want to climb up the road and made a major error - beeline for the control.... Up and down the pretty steep reentrant, then through the scrub oak, crossed the ski trail, and pretty clean into the control. J-J is long gone. | |||||
| 16. | +09:00 | Got even stupider at this point. Didn't want to go over the top - too much climb. Good attack point around to the left, but that's a long way around. Opt for angling up to the right, staying in the white woods as long as I can. Blister bothering me, especially on the uphills. Starting to get some twinges of cramps in my hamstrings. First part of the scrub oak isn't too bad, get to the trail OK. Second part of the scrub is worse, but find some routes through and just force my way on the rest. Start to lose perspective on how far I've gone and where I am vertically on the hillside. Finally push through to the white woods, but am W of the control instead of N and uphill as I think I am, flounder around the hillside for a while and end up near the bottom along the trail. Relocate from the small building and head up. Cramps getting worse. Follow the small gully up. Feeling the blister more. No one around. | |||||
| 17. | +03:30 | Didn't see the indistinct trail slightly uphill, so contoured slowly just right of the line. Thought I missed the trail, so did some floundering about 2/3 of the way. Hit trail by the boulder cluster, and figured out where I was. Saw a couple of folks as I approached the control. | |||||
| 18. | +03:30 | Downhill through the marsh, tripping over a lot more stuff. Past 2 trails, then the stone wall and go just right of the control. Circle around to the right until I hit the trail and stone wall. Get it the 2d time. | |||||
| 19. | Getting tougher going downhill. Through N tip of marsh, take trail to right, angle up hill to small trail, stone wall, then off the end of the stone wall. More cramping. | ||||||
| 20. | Figured there's only a few more controls and I can still move, so keep on going. Work my way down the hill, manage to not get hit crossing the road, to left then cut over t trail. Over to paved road, then cut over by double boulders. Not moving very fast at this point. | ||||||
| 21. | Other than a couple of tense moments getting over some logs, felt OK on this leg. Contoured around to right, Eric Smith in front of me. | ||||||
| 22. | Over 2 trails, reading contours carefully. At the speed I'm going, this isn't too hard. | ||||||
| 23. | Stay high to the right of the line. Eric goes lower. Cross trail, get a few looks from hikers because I'm not walking too well. Loop into the control from the north just ahead of Eric. | ||||||
| 24. | Head right of the line and see the further rockface. Eric gets there ahead of me and I don't understand why he's just standing there and not punching, but when I get there, I don't see the control either. Stand there baffled for a moment, then turn around and see the other pile of rocks. Stumble over to it and punch. | ||||||
| F. | Eric decides to push to the finish, I opt for a more dignified meander in, which is all I'm capable of. However, a superb course and a beautiful day!! |
Total Time Lost - 00:21:00