Race Evaluation
SVO 7 th.Susguehanna Stumble: LONG
TimGood
| 1. | (D) Headache this morning so no breakfast but feeling ok by race time, just tired. Powerbar, ibuprofen, and a lot of ERG just before the start. Some trouble finding the start triangle but just follow the pack led by Ted that takes the trail to the beach. Lose ground steadily on the leaders as we ran thru the campground. Suprised to see the control code is 'd' and not 'D' as on the punch card. Consider not punching as a protest. | ||||||
| 2. | +01:30 | (A) People in front have gotten away out of sight although I saw most head toward A. I'm leading my pack and lead them astray. Up the reentrant expecting to see the control or be led in. Pass below it without seeing it and go to far. Since I have not been paying attention, have to wander a bit. | |||||
| 3. | (B) Along the gully/ditch and continue straight to it. | ||||||
| 4. | (C) With several people and go straight at it | ||||||
| 5. | (5) East to road. Peggy pops out just in front of us, apparently comming form A. Cut in just before the reentrant. | ||||||
| 6. | +00:40 | (6) North to road bend. Step on the side of my foot and turn my ankle just after reaching the road and have to hobble a bit when I should be running hard downhill. Feels ok after awhile but sensitive the rest of the run. Road to the 3rd intersection. I go N then W to get around the green. Others take a more direct line and regain the ground lost on the road run. | |||||
| 7. | (7) I thought the meet notes said the out of bounds was not on a route choice. I might have taken the road to the end and cut in from there. W to road then contoured W to the trail. Trail the rest of the way. Started to fall back on the trail run. | ||||||
| 8. | (8) Considered the low route but the shore line looked iffy and I thought the control was higher. Climbed NNW to catch the trail thru the green. Along the top of the earth bank. Could see the control below us. Way below us. See now that what I thought was the control circle is actually another earth bank. While climbing down, see Ted come in form below. What is he doing back with us? | ||||||
| 9. | (9) Dave Onkst and Nadim also come from below. Must have been a group mistake. Straight line looks like crappy up and down contours so we drop low and then climb back up. | ||||||
| 10. | (E) Road around to E. With Ted and Nadim pulling away in the front, our former pack gets stretched out. | ||||||
| 11. | (F) Up the reentrant. | ||||||
| 12. | (12) Do not recall much about this leg. Dave has dropped back a bit and in sight and Mark Cornish is just in front of me. | ||||||
| 13. | (H) Around W side of lake. I go to far W to avoid the marsh and Dave and Mark get ahead. I see they ahead on the road. I decide on HIGJ for the window, thinking to save a little distance and use the trail from I to G. Dave stays on the road to I, Mark hesitates then heads to H with me. | ||||||
| 14. | (I) Take a bad line to I, should have dropped low and used trails but instead go straight and have to cross the two reentrants. Meet Ted and then later Dave heading to H. | ||||||
| 15. | +01:00 | (G) Another poorly executed leg which negates any possibe advantage to my window order. Get on the wrong trail and instead of following the marsh take the bendy indistinct trail and come out S of the campground. Control no problem but took to much time. | |||||
| 16. | (J) Down stream, across stream and immediately uphill. Along top of steep slope and attach from the campground. Mark took a different route but was there at the control. Dave is nowhere in sight. | ||||||
| 17. | +01:00 | (17) WSW to 2nd buildings then trails down to the beach. Consider the road around but decide on the trail. Did not even see the trail by 18 which I should have used. Took the trail by the lake. Should have let Mark lead. | |||||
| 18. | (18) Across the field and in from the point. | ||||||
| 19. | (exchange) Started straight but fell off to the road anyway. | ||||||
| 20. | +04:00 | (M) Drank my ERG and ate a power gel while studing the route. I like the road run to N but that leaves M off all alone. Also I am so tired I will not be able to run that fast on the road anyway. Decide on the shore route and MLKN. See Angelica and then Peggy coming in as we go out. After crossing the first beach, looks like Mark goes N to the road while I go E along the shore. When the trail runs out I cut the SE corner across the campground. Stop to take a leak just before the next beach section and Wyatt comes from nowhere and races past. On the beach, Darcy, Valerie, Sandy and Co. are all going the other way. Have decided to approach M from the clearing to the E so will take the shore all the way to the E edge of the map. That said, I took the trail up after the 2nd beach crossing and used the roads and clearings instead of following the shore line. Back down to the beach near the (19-22 labeling). Could only see one set of footprints, wonder if others took the land bridge to the north. No problem with the stream crossing but the green on the other side was nasty. Caught the indistinct trail and due E to the clearing. Clearing a bit overgrown along the edge so headed NE to road. Clearing got progressively worse as I traveled across. Brown sticker bushes made it nearly impassible. Had to veer E and then ESE to get clear to road. Shredded my legs getting thru. If I had to do it again, I would take the trail along the swamp. Clearing closer to M was better, slow going but at least it was passible along the edge. As for the control, dropped below the earth bank and once I stopped looking for a knoll (the description for K) I dropped into the reentrant and found it. Hard to estimate how much time I lost on this leg, even on the good running I was moving slow. | |||||
| 21. | (L) NNW to follow the clearing around to N of L. Clearing was ok but not the clean running I had hoped for. After the crappy stuff on the way to M it seemed nice. Trail was probably a better option. | ||||||
| 22. | +00:40 | (K) Bearing and hope to get lucky. Tried to use the green patches to navigate. Anti fog on the glasses has worn off and I can see little of the fine map detail. Came in from the green patch E of the control. | |||||
| 23. | (N) Trail around. All the blowdown across the trail made it difficult to follow. | ||||||
| 24. | (23) Now I am on the home stretch, heading back to the start instead of farther away. No energy left and find myself walking on the road ... while going downhill. Out to road and down to stream intending to follow the reentrant up. Decide that is risky and head straight for the corner of the clearing. Hear someone behind me and Mark catches up at the control. Looks like it may be the Highlander again as Mark and I blunder our way thru the 2nd half. | ||||||
| 25. | (24) With Mark there I have more incentive to hurry and go to a shuffling run. Angle to road on the right and cut in after the bend. | ||||||
| 26. | (O) Can see no good route thru this window. (Thanks Randy) so pick a bad one. OQRP. [Looking at it now I think QROP would be better] South to road jct and road to O attacking from the trail road jct. | ||||||
| 27. | +04:00 | (R) I thought I was contouring around to Q, Mark thought we were going to R. When we saw Nadim going SE to P, realized how high we were and went up to the trail and to R. Missed it on the first pass thru the crap and turned around at the drop off. Mark was looking for the wrong feature and I could not read the map detail well enought to locate exactly. Found it on the 2nd pass, pretty well hidden. Could have saved a lot of time if we had gone straight to the trail and to R instead of starting to Q. | |||||
| 28. | (Q) Straight. Met near the control as she is starting the window with Q. Warn Peggy that R is hard to see. | ||||||
| 29. | +10:00 | (P) Back the way we came to catch the trail but are farther E than expected. Had planned to use the clearing. SE on the line to P then mis read a section of more open woods as the clearing and head E. See now the clearing had an earth bank so we could not have been there. Continue E and eventually peg # 105 from the first half. WIthout the morning map not sure which reentrant we are in but know we have to go back W. | |||||
| 30. | (29) Road and then cut in from the bend. See someone off in the distance but cannot tell who. | ||||||
| 31. | +07:00 | (30) I do know why Mark lets me lead since I make such poor decisions when I am tired. Instead of the trail around which I do not see, we go straight. Slow but at least we were on course. That is until we missed the control in the green. End up well past it at the reentrant to the S and are considering our location when we see Peggy just off to the West. Decide where we are, Peggy does the same and we find the control together. | |||||
| 32. | +01:30 | (31) Peggy appears to have lots of energy and bounds off. Mark follows and I bring up the rear as best I can. Across the clearing but Peggy and Mark drop me and I get left of the and past the control before cutting into the reentrants. Have to cross over several to get back to the right one. | |||||
| 33. | (32) Around the top of the reentrant. | ||||||
| 34. | (33) Straight | ||||||
| 35. | (Fin) Straight. 10 min/km is the best I can do for the finishing kick. Lost 4 minutes to Peggy and Mark over the last few legs. | ||||||
| F. | (?) 4:04:47 Have not seen the results but hear I am 2nd to last. An interesting course with some good window route choices. Thanks Randy and SVO. |
Total Time Lost - 00:31:20