Race Evaluation
West Point Day 1: Red Y
TimGood
| 1. | Accident on Garden State caused me to miss my start time so started very late 12:30 with only Kristen Hall(redX) and Ted (blue) after me. Thought about the road around but it looked like extra climb and I assumed I could run on the flatter area near the top and just go until I saw some rocks. Unprepared for slow rocky footing the whole way. Made very poor time even though I spiked the control coming from the cliff with another control SW of ours. | ||||||
| 2. | See Ted a little ahead of me so have lost at least 2 minutes already. Control is common with Blue so have no trouble with the straight line. | ||||||
| 3. | Out to road jct and follow the cliff from the bend and N of the green. Run up the spur expecting to have an easy time in the open but can see very little. Even with the stiff breeze my glasses are fogging and visiblity is poor. I see several likely boulders but no controls. Turns out that I have stopped short but because I have found the trail already think I may have gone to far. Decide to take the trail to the bare rock an relocate and find the control on the way. | ||||||
| 4. | Everything right except I cannot read the control description or the map detail. To the road and in from the bend. Down the first line of cliffs and carefully thru the gap to go along the W base of the cliffs looking for a 1.3m cliff. All the way to beyond the bend and of course I do not see it since I am not looking up. Back along the cliffs and consider relocating on the powerline. Decide I am in right place but must be some map detail I am missing. (the cliffs just look like a black blob) and there must a 2nd set of cliffs half way up. See the bag way up and check the description to find I have to climb 13m. | ||||||
| 5. | Out the spur and downhill from the clearing. Cross the stream and head straight for it but do not see it. See another control S but clearly not mine so keep going. Turn back at the big cliff on the line to 6 knowing I have passed it. Kristen goes by complaining about a horrible run. Must be bad if she is just now passing me. Head back to the control I passed earlier. As expected, it is not mine and I cannot see the map well enough to find where it is. Head toward some likely looking cliffs and this time I can see the bag from way off. Should have seen it the first time. | ||||||
| 6. | Decide to go straight and attack from the top. Afraid that if I take the lower route I will not be able to tell when to cut up since counting cliffs would be very risky. Looking back now I think that best route would be to run to 7 first then dogleg 6. Slow up the cliffs but the footing is ok at the top. A bit off to the right but attack from what I think is the 2nd marsh. Apparently it is just some other wet spot and I miss completely. Come in from the knolls 110m W. | ||||||
| 7. | Straight but have a hard time getting down the cliffs. Do not find a nice gap like the map shows. Can see the marsh from a distance and the control from way off. | ||||||
| 8. | Road and attack from the building. I see no water anymore at the marked spot. | ||||||
| 9. | Right of the line to miss the marsh and climb between the bare rocks. Straight from there. | ||||||
| 10. | Heading for the trail to the north but find the smaller one along the way and take it to the bend before the reentrant. | ||||||
| 11. | From the clearing ( I find the water this time) and left of the line. Apparently left of the middle cliff and even though I suspect this at the time, do not correct enough and pass W of the control. Cliffs are not matching up but they have not for most of the day, so I keep going as planned until I get to the steeper part. Lots of cliffs around so I head for the largest to try and relocate. Looks like the large bent one W of the control so its up 7 contours to the control | ||||||
| 12. | Super careful on this one since it looks like it will be easy to miss. I do. Checking off the features and even find the control at the end of the stream. Still drop to low and have to relocate from the large cliff 150m S. Up another 7 contours. | ||||||
| 13. | Do not see the small trail when I cross it so cannot adust direction. Come out SW of the big cliff S of the control. Only 2 contours to climb this time. | ||||||
| 14. | Straight. Ted goes by NE on the road. He must be having a bad day as well since I would have expected him to be in already. Once again I do not notice that the cliff is 10m instead of 1.0, but since I am coming from the top it does not hurt me. | ||||||
| 15. | Along the high ground a bit before cutting down. I can see slide marks all along the way where others have gone down. | ||||||
| F. | A leisurely run in, to tired to try and sprint. Ted comes in soon after. My prerace goal of being competitve with the leaders is a distant memory. New goal for day 2 is to move up into the top 1/2. |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00