Relay at the Mid-Atlantic Championships
I was on one of QOC's 3-point teams, together with Tom Wells and FUMA student Sam Marinace. I planned to walk this course, but the competitive juices kicked in quickly as soon as Ted Good came flying past on the way down from the start.
I picked up the pace, and ran the whole course at a consistent jog, which felt pretty good. I stayed on the trail longer than Ted and got past him while he was getting through the rocky green re-entrant cutting across. On my attack to 1 I passed Nadim. I strung together trails on the way to 2, even though that meant extra climb - the climb was on the trail, so I didn't think it would be too slow. I passed Peggy and Tori (who had stayed higher) going in to #2. Going in to the big boulder at 3, I attacked a bit early, but quickly figured that out by using contours and got to 3 together with Dave Pruden. The next control, #4, was the spectator control, and this leg was mostly a road/trail run. I think I lost ground to both Dave and Ted here, as I could see them coming towards 4 as I was leaving it.
I stayed ahead to 5, despite running a step past the trail I planned to turn onto and having to come back. The last control - 6 - was a pretty technical leg with a bit of a trail run followed by an attack across a somewhat featureless hillside. I was careful here and was surprised to see Aaron Linville, who has started in the lead with Sam Kolins, leaving the control as I was coming in.
I had to look back to check that Ted was far enough back on my jog to the finish, and I brought our team across the line in 4th place (both overall and among 3pt teams), having started in 9th.
Even though it was a small, local relay, and even though I wasn't running at full speed, it was still such a blast! We need to have more relays, especially at events that involve a lot of kids.
How do we not have a relay at the Interscholastics?? That seems like a no-brainer to me.
So much fun! And I felt quite a bit stronger than I did at NAOC, so maybe there is some hope for recovery here.
Results:
http://www.dvoa.org/events/results/html/rslt16/roc...