Race Evaluation
Blue Hills Traverse: Traverse
tonyf
| 1. | I'm learning how to start slowly in my long races lately. Still in reasonable shape from a half marathon few weeks ago, so I hoped to not cramp or die toward the end. I start way back in the pack and everyone takes the left route. I'm greatly surprised to see some fast people come in to the control from the north just as I arrive. Found out later they had problems. | ||||||
| 2. | Somewhat S-shaped to avoid the green. Surprised to see Ernst go by the control without punching as several of us were standing there. Turns out I was obscuring the control for him. Sorry. | ||||||
| 3. | Considerable trouble approaching, trying to read the contours as it flattened out, and the green stripes. Followed others gradually left to the control. | ||||||
| 4. | Stayed on the contour before dropping, then between the knolls and around the rocky ground. | ||||||
| 5. | After leaving the last trail and trying to figure out the stony patches someone with an accent asked if the controls could be taken in any order!!! A short conversation led to me losing complete track of wheere I was. Drifted gradually toward the control until Bob Lux and Shiobhan Fleming led me toward it, much farther than I expected. | ||||||
| 6. | Straight but carefully with noone ahead of me. | ||||||
| 7. | Very straight, reading the contours. Realized early it was northwest of the knoll top. Great runnability and visibility. | ||||||
| 8. | Oh no. Not this leg again. I always go around on the trails, so this time I decided to cut the distance a little higher up the slope. Nice woods, but I lost time to Scott Turner who stayed on the trails. I think I caught him again by going in to the control from the trail junction. | ||||||
| 9. | Slow getting down the hill. Ran the road for 200 m before cutting up. | ||||||
| 10. | The first great leg. I considered going over, but try to avoid that at Blue Hills where such trails are rocky. I chose to contour the whole way to minimize the light green. Checked out the parallel trail and wall uncertainly to figure out if I was OK. Kept going to and straight across the trail before the control, correctly interpreting the rock features. | ||||||
| 11. | Left on the road; Scott passed me. a road biker asked if this was on orienteering event. I yelled "Yes". Then carefully through the terrain to the right side of the nose. | ||||||
| 12. | Around to left trying not to lose elevation, following Jim Arsenault, probably too much off-line. | ||||||
| 13. | Road all the way. Couldn't understand why Scott and Jim(?) went by trail. | ||||||
| 14. | Straight via trail junction.Decided to start the long leg by going over on the trail. | ||||||
| 15. | The second great leg. Scott and someone else started north leaving the control and I too quickly changed my mind and started due north to the major trail. Bad mistake. Getting down more or less along the right side of the stream was very slow, but fascinating for the fence and all the cliffs. Finally began the long UPHILL (dumb) run along the northernmost trail, with noone in sight but some trail bikers. Once again I'd gone around here too much, so took the trail up to the road, up the stony reentrant, across the ski trail and down to the control. Scott was coming in from below as I was leaving, and J-J from above. | ||||||
| 16. | Dogleg back the way I came in and way around by too rocky trail to the east, past many hikers. A stream of runners leaving the control helped me in, except they were gone right at the end when I needed them most! Charlie DeWeese complained that I was right on his tail, but I was starting to slow down. Nonetheless, it felt good that I was still in the thick of things. | ||||||
| 17. | Doglegged out again the way I came in, on trails all the way to the faint trail down toward the control. Lost it part way down but with considerable hesitation stumbled right onto the control. Should have taken the trail down the reentrant. | ||||||
| 18. | To the trail crossing, then more or less straight, keeping in map contact. | ||||||
| 19. | Found Phil Bricker at 18. (Yes I did stop to pee; a good sign I was hydrating enough.) Left to avoid the green but got into it anyway then along the right side of the broad flat. | ||||||
| 20. | Phil again at 19. He went east, but I decided to go down to the parking lot then due est from the pond end. Not fast in places, then walking uphill to the road. | ||||||
| 21. | Contoured below the rocky nose. This and all remaining legs I saw noone, and was really worried about the technical terrain. | ||||||
| 22. | Straight, but misinterpreted the knolls and found nothing when pace count ran out. Immediately looked around and saw control 50 m to right. Perhaps my biggest miss of the day. | ||||||
| 23. | West almost to road bend, then long drag (some walk) uphill. | ||||||
| 24. | Brain starting to go. Seemed like a long leg and was off to right again. Assumed correctly that the rec people were going to my control. | ||||||
| F. | Felt good finishing. Noone else within 4 minutes of me each way; where did they all go? [See other comments!] |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00