Orienteering (Goat) 2:24:58 [4] **** 13.29 km (10:54 / km) +640m 8:47 / km
spiked:14/slept:8.0
The Billygoat at Mt. Norwattuck, MA. I went into the race with little more plan than to pace myself and try to stay in contact w/the map. The pre-race notes indicated this would be one of the most difficult of the series. Besides the climb (The course notes said it was 640m but Greg Balter's altimeter said he'd done 765m--I did more due to my bad route to #16) and difficult navigation there were reports of map problems and thicker vegetation than mapped. Through the first 7 controls I was definately running faster than I could navigate there by myself. Early on I was near Randy and Dave Onkst. I guess due to our speed similarities I found myself chasing Ted through #6. Ted and one other unknown voice saved me from passing #6 on a fast downhill run when I was confused and blasting toward #7. Number 7 was a technically difficult and long leg that I got behind Greg Balter on. Greg did all the hard work navigating this. We blasted away but boomed far enough left to be in the vicinity of #8 before he got us into the circle and I spotted it. At #9 Greg and I were hunting and split. I made an error coming out of #9 trying to catch up and found myself alone through #18. I was slow to #10 and boomed #11 going low. At the manned control #13 they told me I was next behind Greg and that I was in 22nd place. I skipped #15 but went slowly over the top of the huge knob instead of going around it on the way to #16). Fortunately for me the navigation was easier all the way to the finish. I cramped on the steep hill coming out of #16 but this went away once on the trail again. Around #18 I caught-up to Eric Osborn and then Ted Good who wished us well as we passed. Eric got to #19 first by using the trail more than I did and perhaps pushing harder. Taking trails the long way around to #20, Eric and I suddenly found ourselves near the head of a strung-out pack with Earnst Linder and Peter Gagarin just ahead. I spotted and got into the Go control just ahead of Peter and just behind Eric. I tripped leaving it and went wide-right to the open area but managed to stay ahead of Peter and place 14th--first ever Lifetime Points and once again an improvement in Billygoat place. See the Split List.