Race Evaluation
Anza Borrego Desert O-Fest 2006: Red Day 2
Cristina
| 1. | +00:30 | Confident at the start, because Day 2s always go better, and today we had less climb (good for me) and less nasty terrain. First control basically just off the top of the ridge, which had a trail, so the route was easy. I was drawn off the ridge to a different control, despite knowing that I hadn't gone far enough yet. I usually don't check "just in case", but this time it was too similar a feature to ignore. | |||||
| 2. | +02:00 | Saw the long route on the dirt road to the right of the line and immediately decided it was too long. And then ran it anyway. I guess I wasn't feeling confident in my ability to navigate across the flat stuff to the big feature. I wasn't "seeing" the map yet. | |||||
| 3. | +02:00 | Given my lack of confidence at this point, this one scared the pants off of me. I ran carefully, letting some dudes run off ahead rather than follow and risk being totally lost. Ran to the right of the big ridge and tried to approach the control from the big reentrant on the end, but it was a real wag. Ended up low down near the main wash and easily relocated. Moved up the stream from there. | |||||
| 4. | This stuff isn't so bad if you just move slowly and keep track of where you are. Walls on the side of the reentrants were a lot steeper than I realized they'd be, which would have allowed me to go faster (easy catching feature). No matter, attacked from the rocky ridge just outside the control circle. | ||||||
| 5. | Starting to feel better, and seeing the map better. Clambered up to the top of the ridge, joining the trail to take me around the first reentrant , then cut across the second to the next ridge. Dropped right onto the control. | ||||||
| 6. | +02:00 | No good plan here, aside from just handrailing down the major stream and attacking from some (undetermined) junction. I was looking at the control symbol for 5 (a cliff) but it was a super flat alluvial plain type area, so I was confused and ran well past the control. Realized my mistake when I noticed the reentrants running the wrong way, turned around and saw the basic feature right away, as well as about 6 other people converging towards it. | |||||
| 7. | Looking big, aimed for the saddle straight ahead, crossed over to land just left of the control. Moving faster, leaving much of the crowd from the previous control behind. | ||||||
| 8. | Contoured along the bottom of the ridge, keeping the general shape of the ridge to keep track of where I was. Hit the stream with the earth bank a few meters too low, but basically right on. | ||||||
| 9. | These last few controls were flat and fast and just needed big feature navigating, right up to the control circle. In this case I aimed for the ridge across the road, ran along top, and dropped into the right reentrant. Some kid was following me to the top, but was obviously reading the map because he passed, only to drop into the wrong reentrant (to the right). I wasn't silly enough to follow him, a small triumph. :-) | ||||||
| 10. | +00:30 | Ran straight and fast to exactly the wrong rocky finger. Thought I was paying attention to a rough bearing, guess it was too rough. | |||||
| 11. | Took the road past the start and cut over to the finish area, again leaving some poor slow schmoes behind. | ||||||
| F. | Busted out full effort for the chute run-in, and one of the finish line workers said, "nice finish! I think that's the best one all day!" I felt really good when I finished. |
Total Time Lost - 00:07:00