Race Evaluation
Blue Hills Traverse: Traverse
Charlie
| 1. | Trail to the left. Got going ok, but after a bit it was all people passing me. Left trail past green area and around on trail, then in on compass. | ||||||
| 2. | On red line to the first trail, then R to northernmost tip, up reentrant below cliff and up the spur. Punched behind Scott Turner. | ||||||
| 3. | NW to upper trail, following Scott, but couldn't keep up once we hit the trail. Lots of climb, perhaps better to have taken southern route. Along top then down under cliff and through marsh. Could see Scott and a few others well ahead. Noone in sight by the time I crossed trail, and no trouble hitting control. | ||||||
| 4. | W looking for trail on top, and found a trail but maybe not that one. Got passed by a guy in red white and blue who was moving briskly. Lost trail at top of steep area and down the hill, picking up broader trail to the W and thence to junction and back to trail around and to control. Saw a parade leaving the control, headed by Scott, then a few and then Clint, finally Ken W. | ||||||
| 5. | Alone on trail. No problem | ||||||
| 6. | On an angle, but out to road and across quickly, then up to trial and in over knoll. | ||||||
| 7. | +03:00 | Having a lot of trouble seeing the map, partly because of 1:15, but mostly because my eyes are tearing so much in the cold. Saw Pavi headed from 8-9. Thought I was right on line, but ended up a bit right and too high and had to hunt a bit. A couple of adventure racers were higher than I was, but headed down sooner and got there first. | |||||
| 8. | +13:30 | Disaster! Not sure exactly what happened, but just couldn't relocate. I think I was too far S, as I saw Lex, et al, headed from 6-7, so drifted further north and got into a likely looking reentrant and scoured it for a bit, then down to the trail to the east and headed back in from the knoll, but didn't see anything that looked right, so up to the bend in the trail in the vicinity of the #8 on the map, and down the reentrant from the trail junction. The area where the flag was didn't look anything like what I thought I was looking for. Lost many places. | |||||
| 9. | +01:00 | A little rattled. Thought I was doing ok, but got sucked up when I thought I saw a flag a line or so higher and ended up going past the control and having to hook back. | |||||
| 10. | To trail jct, then trail W and straight in. Saw Lex, Pete and Eric S headed from 10-11, so knew I was about 2 minutes back of them. | ||||||
| 11. | +02:00 | WNW to trail powerline jct, then on trail about 50 m or so past next jct and in on compass. Somehow missed it high and went by, had to come back. Still not able to read map. | |||||
| 12. | SSW to road. Took a really long time. Walking quite a bit and stumbling over stuff. Then road to trail and up. Just took a long time but spiked the control. Particularly satisfying because a guy ran by me on the trail and by the control as well. | ||||||
| 13. | W to road just N of bend. Picked up a headband on the way which turned out to belong to Eric S. Saw Sam L. on his way from 16-17, and Lex, Pete and Eric well ahead on the road. | ||||||
| 14. | Past finish line as Ross, Joe and Ernst were approaching. Tried to spot #23 as I went by, but didn't see it. As it turned out later, I did see the feature, but the flag was hidden. Close behind Lex, Pete and Eric at the control, but still not able to catch up. | ||||||
| 15. | Cut the corner to go up the hill a little more than the ones in front, but still not able to go fast enough to catch up. | ||||||
| 16. | Stayed up on spur longer and then down to trail, still lagging behind Lex and Pete. They went in through the yellow, and I gained ground going through the parking lot instead, reaching control about even with them and a bit behind Barb. | ||||||
| 17. | Pretty good leg for me today. Passed Barb where trail cut up from the road and across to road again, then N on road and trail to HQ area and left on trail, walking and running up long hill, then running down the other side, passing by 20 and down to lower trail, then pace counting and looking for stone wall, which was too low to see, but saw the cliff with the flag on it instead. As I approached it from below, Gary Gallagher was on top. | ||||||
| 18. | Tough climb for me, getting a bit too high and hitting the trail, then back down hill on that to above the cliff where I saw Katia heading back out. Cliff was easy. | ||||||
| 19. | Back on trail looking for knoll, but not sure when or if I crossed it, so headed W on compass looking for open area and lone tree. But which lone tree? I was one open area to the NE, so headed up to the other one and found a cedar! Why did this take so long? Couldn't move. | ||||||
| 20. | Downhill on compass, no problem. Gary G leaving the area as I approached. | ||||||
| 21. | Undecided about which trail to take, but just headed left and took trail around from there. Turned out Gary did as well, and we swapped leads gong up the last hill. Got a line too low in reentrant and had to climb back up for it. | ||||||
| 22. | Endeavored to go down the marsh and stream bed, but it was kind of yucky so got up on the Eastern high ground. After a bit saw I was even with Gary who was down in the stream area. After crossing stonewall I was a bit ahead, and was surprised to see Sam L and Katia at the control. | ||||||
| 23. | Behind Sam and not much ahead of Katia and Gary. Got ahead of Sam when he stopped to read map after getting on trail from road corner, but he went by again and was running much stronger. Sam missed cutoff for control, though and kept barrelling along the trail, so I got there first. | ||||||
| F. | Heard plenty of footsteps behind me, so tried to keep moving in the chute and held them off. |
Total Time Lost - 00:19:30