Overall impression: Big Muddy Ranch is super beautiful. This may have found a permanent spot on my o' calendar. It's far, but the race is cheap and lodging free. Good job CROC on a sweet event!
The race: Long story short, Julie's dog came with us and pooped out at 2-3 hours. Julie ran back to the start, got the truck, and came back to pick up Yoda (the dog) and I. We had about 3:45 left when we set out again for a second loop (after notifying event staff of our little car excursion), and we rejiggered our course to prioritize good views and interesting places to find. View from 82 was fantastic. Though I was glad that we were also on the east part of the course earlier, in the cliffy stuff- it was very pretty and interesting over there. The west side of the course was so different! Much smoother.
About nav: I think the most common rogaine mistake (for me) is to interpret a smaller feature as a bigger feature on the map. (Hard to shake the orienteering scale of things.) Several times, we had to pass up a smaller feature and find a bigger version of the same thing further on. I don't take advantage of pace counting, but adding this in would help us ignore the smaller stuff when it doesn't make sense pace-wise. Though my side-hilling pace count can't be anything like my flat-ground count! Ha. So much side-hilling.
Fun things: Julie brought her trail running friend Angel, who teamed up with Kate. It was fun to hear her perspective on it all!
About feet: WAY better! Used athletic tape on the balls of my feet and heels. Switched to thicker, synthetic socks with a terry-cloth-type inside. Switched to Salomon XT Wings that have an upper that hug my foot better. The upper on the Salomon Fellraisers is just sloppy-- my foot slides around. Also, the weave on the XT Wings is tighter, so I didn't get grass seeds stuck in my shoes like a lot of other people did. Also had my OR gaiters on. And wore hiking pants as opposed to tights.
To Woodland Park, meandered around, and back. Got a GREAT peek-a-boo of the Olympics on the way back. The light was such that I could distinguish several layers of mountains.
Blew #1, as did a lot of people, then was very distracted by un-orienteering-related thoughts for the first third, and I slowly regained my map mojo, warmed up, and felt better and better as the race went on. I was actually said when I was almost done, because I wanted it to keep going!