Race Evaluation
NEOC Troll Cup Day 1: Green-Y
pkturner
| 1. | I had the first start, 9:00 a.m. My goal was to stay ahead of Dennis Struble and Ed Kotowski, who started just after me. Down the western trail, sharp turn at the junction, and pace count to hit the control. | ||||||
| 2. | Slowed a little trying to make my brain match the mapped spurs to the actual spurs. J-J went by on Red. | ||||||
| 3. | Southeast to trail, southwest on trail, then straight down and up. | ||||||
| 4. | Over the hilltop to the power line trail. Looked for but didn't find the little link trail which I desired in order to get on the correct spur, so pace counted down what eventually appeared to be the spur to the west of the correct one. Headed east one spur and found the control. | ||||||
| 5. | +03:00 | Right of the green, then rather straight across dirt roads. Between the roads I heard someone behind me; turned out to be J-J. Continued straight toward control, picking out contour and rock features carefully, but without high confidence. Coming to the drop-off where the boulder should appear, saw no boulder. Drat! should have aimed off!. Tried going right but found trail and had to double back. | |||||
| 6. | +07:00 | Heading east along the valley, the features weirdly appeared more slowly than the map led me to anticipate. The contours were flipping up and down on me and when they settled, they didn't agree with the terrain. It looks easy on the map, especially with the trail there, but the trail failed to relieve my stupor. I pushed ahead until I found the next trail. I ran east along that trail until I reached a junction and relocated 150m beyond the control. Then back south along a trail and in. | |||||
| 7. | North to the dirt road, west along the road to the wreck and the little trail. Then straight through the light green, which was slow and thick with saplings. Spiked the control. | ||||||
| 8. | Aimed to go between the dark green marshes. Didn't exactly find the good running, but the swamp wasn't too bad, being quite dry. Then north past trail, over hill, and in. | ||||||
| 9. | Tried to count contours, but had to keep ascending beyond the point where I expected the control. | ||||||
| 10. | Straight, keeping an eye on the knolls to left to judge progress and elevation. Found the knoll with control just fine. | ||||||
| 11. | Again tried counting contours to ascend the right amount; came out just above the cliff. | ||||||
| 12. | +00:40 | Through saddle then tried to get right and join the trail for easier descent. Reached the east-west trail instead, then sprinted for the "go" control. Not there. After all that going right, could I have come out on the trail to the left of the control? No. Just not your average "go" control. | |||||
| F. | No sign of Dennis, Ed, or J-J at the finish. I'm the first of the finish crew back, with son Philip the only witness to keep me honest. |
Total Time Lost - 00:10:40