Discussion: company in the bad run department

I had a pretty pathetic outing today. I was doing really well for about 2/3 of the course and then totally fell apart for the last bit. Yuck. Will post details later.

Thanks for even thinking about waiting for me! I didn't start until close to 1 and was a bit over 2 hours. Not a good day.

But good for you for doing red! And I bet you didn't do as badly as you thought.

Oh I did. Twice, I was high atop a spur I had just climbed up looking over a huge reentrant system realizing that I needed to go right back down the way I had just come up since I was not where I thought I was and I needed to be on the other side. I could barely walk when I got out of the car when I got home.

Aw. I'm pretty beat up too. Them damn hills!

Ann,

You shouldn't feel bad about your run. You did a very good job in a tough area. Elk Neck is unusual DVOA terrain, and tough physically and technically. Also, the course was on the long side, so you had an extra 1.5 K of distance as icing on the cake.

So, in the final analysis, I'd be pretty pleased if I were you hanging in there. This will be great preparation for later in the year.

Thanks Clem. How would you say Elk Neck compares to the last QOC venue we ran - McKeldin? Less runnable woods at Elk neck but the climb was similar right?

I would say that the terrain at McKeldin was very different in lots of ways. While McKeldin was steep, so lots of climb, the climb came in big chunks. At Elk Neck, the climb is lots (and lots) of short climbs, not a few major ups (and downs). Even when you go up and down the reentrants at Elk Neck, they're short and "sweet", not long slogs. There are a few big hills, but you get worn out by all the little ones. As you say, the terrain at Elk Neck is less runnable, although I have to say the Red course included lots of route choices that had lots of runnable sections - trails, roads, open woods. But the terrain at Elk Neck is tons trickier. In the detailed sections, you either had to slow way down to make sense of all the contours or risk making high penalty errors. And sometimes even slowing down wasn't enough to avoid big errors - at least for me! :) And the map is old, so lots of unmapped deadfall making route choice a little dicey.

The QOC maps are much more open and feel more convex. (Normally I think concave maps are easier technically, but not always.) I'll try to explain what I mean in person.

Also, the QOC maps are more runnable, and I think you can or should run at a higher average heart rate for all of the race.

Finally, there is really only one thing that you need to worry about for navigation and moving through the terrain: contours. Elk Neck has vegetation and contour obstacles (ravines) which add difficulty in finding controls and finding and executing routes.

Thanks guys! Yes I was afraid of that diagnosis: learn your contours!! I still have a ways to go with this and I guess it's just something that I will pick up eventually. Though I do feel better about Sunday after reading these comments :) Clem I can't wait to hear about concave and convex maps!