Race Evaluation
2001 Billygoat Run:
jjcote
| 1. | I take off through the woods and play lemming for a while, examining the map for skips. I decide that although #5 looks good, I'd rather save it for later, and will thus skip #19. After a while I lose sight of Greg Balter, and decide I should probably figure out where I am. I was with a crowd that went SW to the trail, S to the T junction, W for about 250 m, cut the corner, and headed south on the trail that passes E of #19. I'm with Alan Young, who appears to be content to stay on this trail for a while, but I decide it's time to hit the woods, and cut off on what I think is the high point of the trail, but fail to see the stone wall (I'm actually not quite that far yet). Slightly concerned because there's nobody ahead of me, but a momentary pause reveals that there are a lot of people behind and to the sides. Soon see the marsh ahead, and read the features right to the control (tough to see the rocks through the leaves!) right behind Eddie. | ||||||
| 2. | Everybody inexplicably seems to head into the green, except Alan and me, who get ahead but are soon caught by Eddie. Smooth route, just to the left of the little marsh, and we catch some other people at the control. | ||||||
| 3. | |||||||
| 4. | Greg Balter comes up the hill as we approach the control, heading in a strange direction and saying something about having made a mistake. | ||||||
| 5. | Like many others, I leave in too much of a northerly direction and cross the stream, but unlike most of them, I just follow the stream down to the trail. Pass Joe Brautigam at the bridge, sitting down and fiddling with his orthotics. At the bend, other people turn and head for #6, but I go straight, behind somebody (Laszlo Kolyvek?). He hesitates when we get to the thicket, but I hook around the laurel and nail it. | ||||||
| 6. | As I leave, somebody is standing just north of the control looking really baffled. I do my best to run like hell, keeping a tenuous idea of which stone walls I'm following. and figuring I really can't get too lost in here. It's a bit thicker than I had hoped, but not too bad. Laszlo gets ahead just before the control. | ||||||
| 7. | Laszlo goes awfully far left, making me wonder if he's skipping #7. Alone at the control. | ||||||
| 8. | Down the little trail, across to the big trail, and I properly follow the small trails up to the clearing without getting sidetracked down by the river. | ||||||
| 9. | Scott Turner and Sam Levitin are at the aid station, and as I drink my bottle of airplane fuel, Sam is making weird comments about my being so far back, and asks what my 10K PR is. I mention that I haven't skipped yet, and that I've never run a 10K. North, across the dam, up to the start triangle, then straight, just south of the #17 cliff, and read my way in nicely, catching Charlie DeWeese, Charlie Leonard, and Pavlina. | ||||||
| 10. | With the crowd, we're a tad hesitant, looking at various steep spots on the way. | ||||||
| 11. |
Did not like map | Around the green to the south, and slightly confused because I'm running past a prominent quarry but can't see it on the map (it's there, but didn't look like I expected). I come in south of the pond, a few steps behind the others. | |||||
| 12. |
Did not like map +05:00 | It seemed like a good idea at the time, and still doesn't seem like that bad an idea now. The big problem in this race was not my choice of skips, but rather the time lost on #12. Decided to cross the river on the stone wall south of the line, and come in over the white hilltops. But the green marsh looked pretty green, and I had to skirt a ways north, eventually hitting the faint trail. Headed for the stone wall anyway, and found it without much trouble, but when I got to the other side of the river, I found that the nice white patch was actually a thicket of bulletproof greenbriar. Had to stumble around in there for a couple of minutes before finding a passageway to the open diffuse marsh, and then things cleared up. But then I read the marsh just south of the control as uncrossable, since it has a black line around it, but it's actually quite crossable (and is in fact mapped as such). As a result, I was too far south and had to circle around for a minute to relocate. I get to the control after Charlie D, and just behind Scott and Sam, which didn't make me too happy. | |||||
| 13. | Made good time here. | ||||||
| 14. | Catch and pass Charlie and Mark Dominie. Megan Donahue and Nadim Ahmed are just ahead. | ||||||
| 15. | I take off following Nadim (why?) and we contour down, cross the stream, and run off the map. Hit the trail pretty quick anyway, and hightail it, with somebody else (Laszlo again?) joining in. Phil Bricker shows up, having skipped #14. Nadim opens up a good gap, and those guys all head left at the fork. I go right and pass Phil and Laszlo. | ||||||
| 16. | Right, just by the marsh but shunning the trail. Nadim appears from above, and heads down to an Orange course control on the stone wall, but I go directly up the spur. | ||||||
| 17. | Just north of the line, trails around the lake, and an easy attack from the trail junction NE of the control. On the way I think about whether skipping #23 would be fun enough to justify it, but decide that I don't actually swim well enough to pull it off. Laszlo is right behind me at the control. | ||||||
| 18. | Spooky leg, no features to check off on the way. Aim off a little to the right so I can follow the top of the slope down, and fortunately, the boulder is HUGE! | ||||||
| 19. | skip! | ||||||
| 20. | SE from the control, follow the trail to the narrow isthmus between the two lakes. I think I've been through this gap once before, and it was about like I expected, a short nasty bit, then fine. Trail run until just beore the final hill, the diagonally down the slope to the vicinity of the control. I don't have the advantage of the stone wall to help me out, unlike people coming from #19, but I see Peggy, Joe Mokszycki, and Rick DeWitt leaving the control, and Rick points back over his shoulder. Pavlina arrives at about the same time as me. | ||||||
| 21. | Trying to run hard to stay ahead of Pavlina. | ||||||
| 22. | When I get to the trail, I see Rick, Joe, and Peggy ahead of me. Peggy hesitates, then turns and heads across to the east side of the river. Doesn't look appealing enough to me, and I head straight north through the white, making what seems like good time. Almost catch Rick at the dam, and am close behind him on the twisty trail. | ||||||
| 23. | I think I see a glimpse of Peggy way up ahead at one point, but mostly I see Rick. Just before the control, Joe comes in from my left, and the three of us are at the control together. | ||||||
| F. | Joe is ahead, and I can match his pace, but Rick seems to be fading a smidge. Tons of people going the other way towards #17 and shouting encouragement. At the last turn, we pass a seriously cramped Jeff Saeger hobbling along, and I have enough energy to kick past Rick, but as I try to pass on the right, he moves right and I get a face full of elbow. Squeeze past anyway, and apparetly so does Jeff, though we couldn't catch Joe. |
Total Time Lost - 00:05:00