Race Evaluation
28th Annual Billygoat Run:
mindsweeper
| 1. | +00:10 | I was a bit short on time at the start, and so I prioritized copying control codes to my punch card over tying my shoelaces properly. I figured I could tie triple knots while the start speech was going on. Naturally, I forgot all about the shoelaces, and the first one came undone halfway into the first leg. At this point I had been choosing a lower and rockier route, and was not with the ideal people for my running speed. (Probably Greg and-or Randy) After I had tied my left shoelaces, I saw Boris' yellow sweatband about 4 countours above me, and I knew that any chance to stick with the faster group for a while was already gone. Coming into the saddle, Peter came in from the left, and I decided to settle in behind him for a while. He took us to the stone wall and we followed it down to the end. Kristin and a few others were with us too. | |||||
| 2. | Not sure the best way to navigate this one - following peter still. I figured out to just hit the river and look for the bend by the time we were almost there. | ||||||
| 3. | Going to the road struck my mind, but the forest was just too runnable. I followed the stone fences for a while, and cut to the left of the green marsh. Peter swung right, which I belive cost him a few seconds. | ||||||
| 4. | After punching I tied my right shoelace that (naturally) had come undone by now. Because of the way I had folded my map, I didn't even notice that this was the forked control. Hence I was well on my way to 4 (thinking that this was maybe a good skip to avoid climb) before Kristin's comments about 'left looking better' made me examine the map more closely. At that point I had climbed far enough that going back left seemed like a bad idea, so I carried on. Ernst was just ahead of me. I managed to contour pretty nicely around the hill and nail the control. | ||||||
| 5. | Followed the stone wall by the marsh. Met up with Peter and Kristin and punched just behind them. 4L was marginally better I think. Passed some USMAOC guys during legs 5-7. | ||||||
| 6. | A slow leg because of some climb and having to jump some stone walls. | ||||||
| 7. | Behind peter down the hill, then into the forest not knowing exactly where I was. (Didn't know what the mapped special objects were, and didn't see anything that fit.) We hit the ruined stone wall, and some people hesitated while I carried on. A good leg for me. Kristin had swung too far left but punched shortly after me. I think this is where we found Pavlina, or maybe it was on the next leg. | ||||||
| 8. | The map looks almost flat around the marsh, but in reality there's a lot of up and down. We all stopped a bit short, but eventually got there. Samantha was now just a few seconds ahead. | ||||||
| 9. | +00:15 | To the trail and down. Used my running speed to get away from Peter and others, just to make a mistake and miss low to the right like everybody else. | |||||
| 10. | Drank some water. Decided not to skip 10 because of the nice and runnable field. Had singled out #25 instead. Ran just in front of Samantha down the field. In retrospect, I think this might have been the best skip. | ||||||
| 11. | A long line of people. Not sure exactly who, but I was ahead of Kristin and Peter still. | ||||||
| 12. | Samantha was running faster now and I had to work to keep up. A lot of people went left across the brook, which puzzled us. Peter ran the trail which was perfectly reasonable, but he didn't catch up yet. | ||||||
| 13. | After crossing the marsh, Samantha started to veer right. Ernst and I quietly turned left and traversed. (Sorry Sam!) Still not a great split. | ||||||
| 14. | Woo-hoo. | ||||||
| 15. | Ernst and I headed for the big orange gatorade container and poured ourselves a cup each before the organizers pointed out that there was pre-poured cups on the table. I grabbed another cup before carrying on - one gu saved. After passing Sergei on the road, we found the trail. I was in the lead and headed into the forest just left of the small hill. Others decided to stay on the trail for longer. I believe my route was, if anything, slightly faster. | ||||||
| 16. | +00:15 | I went too far left and got stuck in the marsh for a short while until I had the good sense to turn 90 degrees to the right and get out of it. People were chasing me. Some gentleman with a camelback caught up - not sure what his name is, or whether he ended up beating me. | |||||
| 17. | I got slightly stuck on one of the cliffs, and was just a few steps behind mr. camelback. Samantha was with us too now. We found the small brook and went straight when it curves left. Feels like this should have taken less time. | ||||||
| 18. | Samantha surged ahead and wanted to go up the trail until the left turn. Then we went down the hill and up on the other side. Too far up. We were turning slowly left and right for what seemed like an eternity. Kristin cought up early, and Peter later on. Instead of following I should have executed my own navigation, staying closer to the marsh until the rock features appeared. | ||||||
| 19. | People insisted on taking the trail all the way to the end of the marsh. I didn't want to risk losing the group so I followed. After crossing the larger trail up the hill, people started to climb the steeper hill. I used the opportunity to run down the shelf and punch first. | ||||||
| 20. | I wasn't thirsty, and decided to try to break loose from the group. I managed pretty well, although Samantha was only a few lines below. I should maybe have shared my plan with her since we were probably the two fastest runners in the group, except for maybe Ernst. | ||||||
| 21. | +01:45 | After gaining 40-50 seconds on most of the others, I made two tactical mistakes. The first mistake was to go carefully down the hill in order not to miss #22. This is exactly the wrong thing to do after just having made a break for it. The second tactical mistake was to follow Peter as he came running much faster than me down the hill to my right. We missed to the right by 3 lines or so, and didn't even see the rest of the group as we climbed back up to the control. | |||||
| 22. | I had a lead on Peter as we ran on the trail, but hesitated while trying to make sense of the vegetation before the control. He caught up and punched slightly ahead. | ||||||
| 23. | I climbed the hill pretty good, but wasn't quite sure where I was at the top. Again Peter went faster downhill and punched ahead. | ||||||
| 24. | This time there was no doubt, so I climbed to the top ahead of Peter. I didn't notice the small hill down the trail, so I spent some time trying to figure out what to use as an attackpoint. I read the map a bit too carefully, and didn't run down the trail all that fast. I went off the trail as soon as I saw the rock on the left side. Coming down to the control, Ernst and a couple of other guys were starting towards #25, which was encouraging. I thought Ernst had not skipped yet, which turned out to be correct. Oops. | ||||||
| 25. | Skip! | ||||||
| 26. | For once there was more undergrowth than mapped. I moved through it at about the same pace as Peter, but once through it I saw Kristin up ahead. This was encouraging in the sense that I but I could outsprint her, but discouraging in that it meant Samantha was probably still ahead of us and out of reach. I punched only slightly behind Kristin. | ||||||
| F. | The fight to the finish was made slighly easier by Kristin going only a tad too low before the river bend. I stayed high and gained enough to maintain a comfortable lead into the finish chute. |
Total Time Lost - 00:02:25