Race Evaluation
NEOC: Blue Hills Traverse: Traverse
jjcote
| 1. | One of the last to arrive, just finished pinning on my bib number before Dean said "go". Never looked at my map, just stayed in the middle of the stotgun pattern, then followed Ernst when we got close. | ||||||
| 2. | Ernst and a few others disappeared up the trail, and I found myself in a small pack with the people I'd be seeing for the next couple of hours: Tim Parson, Jeff Woods, Tim Parson, and John Hansman (and a few others). Trails to the right, up after the green. | ||||||
| 3. | I cut across a bit more of of the marsh then those ahead of me. What's with the blue outlines on the marshes on this map? | ||||||
| 4. | Trails right. The indistinct trail that we took at the end has maybe been rerouted, because it crossed the larger trail further to the west than shown. There were people (Ernst and Ross, anyway) milling around when we arrived. I was pretty sure we needed to go left, and that's what everybody else was doing, and that was the right thing to do. Coach taking pictures here. | ||||||
| 5. | We all went out to the road pretty much on the straight line, then everybody else went right to take the trail. I didn't figure I'd make very good time on the trail, so I just continued straight. Probably should have gone more to the left to go through the saddle and save about 5 lines of climb, but I just went straight over the hill. There's some bare rock and extra trails up on top, so I got through the green pretty easily, then it was a nice cruise along the bench just below the green toward the control. When I got to the place where I need to drop down, the gang was hunting around near the upper cliffs, about 6 lines too high. I just kept going, leaving them to wonder whether I was heading for the control, or if I had already punched. | ||||||
| 6. | Pretty much straight. By myself for the first part, but near the end Tim and Jeff (and maybe John?) caught up. | ||||||
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| 9. | Trails to the right. | ||||||
| 10. | A little right to avoid the worst of the green, then a fun downhill cruise to the control. Coach taking pics here, said Samantha was 2 min ahead, and the leaders about 6. | ||||||
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| 13. | Down to big trail, small trail through the green, turned right, then left, then cut across green marsh to the next trail. Took that to just before the corner, and found the small trail that I hadn't noticed on the map that led right to the control. The whole gand has been on my tail for a bunch of legs now, Jeff sometimes getting a little ahead, but navigating in a wobbly manner. | ||||||
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| 15. | Jeff and I seem to pull away from the others a bit. | ||||||
| 16. | I went prooty straight, just right of the marsh, and Jeff was more or less behind me, but seeming to go in not so straight a line. TIm went left and took the trail, alloing him to catch up and get just ahead. | ||||||
| 17. | Right around the lake. This has to be the most balanced route-choice leg I have ever seen, in terms of distance. Coach taking pics as we got close. | ||||||
| 18. | Trails right, cut through the little clearing to get to the control. In the lead at the end of this leg. | ||||||
| 19. | This was where I "made my move", though it wasn't exactly planned. I led the group out of the control, and got stuck in some smilax just before I hit the trail. Distracted, I turned left on the trail, and didn't think about what I was doing until we got to the bend. At that point I was thinking that Jeff was going to be a pretty hard guy to shake, and briefly considered letting him go up ahead and hope he'd get lost. When the trail turned left, I stopped, and Jeff kept going while I looked at the map to try and figure out where I was. I turned around, and Tim was leaving the trail to go straight over the cliffs, cut the corner, and hit the small trail through the green. But I didn't see the small trail, and I just turned around and hightailed it down the slope to the NW to get to the trail I had intended to be on. Now on my own, I turned on the jets a little to see if I could get out ahead and lose those two. Smooth route to the control, cutting corners and staying pretty straight. | ||||||
| 20. | Didn't take the trails, just went straight at it, and attacked from the stone wall wiggle on the E edge of the circle. Surprised to see Samantha coming out of the control. | ||||||
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| 23. | Could see Samantha up ahead intermittently, although she was pulling away. Mostly trail route around to the right, finishing with a very short stretch on pavement, a splash through a flooded flat area, then cut across the ski slopes and down on the lift line. Saw Samantha coming back out to the ski slopes as I headed into the woods. | ||||||
| 24. | Out through the yellow at the bottom of the slope. Saw Tim coming down the lift line as I crossed it. DIdn't have any illusions that I could catch Samantha, but I did figure there was a chance that Tim could close the gap on me, so I kept moving as fast as I could. Easy to read the fence and water tank near the end of the leg, but my brain was fuzzy enough that I had to think hard to be sure that I had to cross a paved road to get to the control. Slight calf twinges, but it didn't turn into a real cramp. Wasn't sure what was what in the circle, but the control was behind the thing that I was hoping was the knoll. | ||||||
| F. | Nice fast downhill finish, woohoo! Thanks to Dean and company for an excellent Traverse. |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00