Boulder Dash Day 2
I was disappointed with my slow time yesterday, but I stuck with my plan to walk much of the course. I hoped to be clean and be under 20 min/k.
I smiled when I turned over the map and saw that our first control was straight into the woods: I liked that! It hardly ever happens. Took it slow and careful, followed my new compass, and hit the control,
Then I looked at 2 and smiled again: what a switch! A nice long leg, with several trail options. I liked this course design!
I decided to take a long trail route, because it was different and I could run a bit, I also knew it was risky, because there were lots of tails to read, and they were not always easy to see in real life. I did slow down often to read the map and make sure I took the correct trail. I also stopped for a few minutes to help two boys on the white course, who were quite confused.
As I neared 2, my plan was to reach the trail junction just south of 5 and take the right hand trail. I turned right and jogged along. But when I looked at my compass, I was heading N instead of W, so I stopped. I noticed a few people nearby, all heading E, but I ignored them. I figured I was now on the trail that was E of the control. I just knew I had messed up a trail junction, so I went back and took the other trail, It went W for a bit, but soon I knew it was also wrong. Back again. Stood in the junction, noticed the triangle shape and tried to find it on the map. Boy, did I feel dumb when I finally figured out where I was: really close to where I should be! Once again I had gotten close to the control, and then back-tracked and relocated. Plus I had lost a lot of time. Bummer!
3 and 4 were slow and bit off, but no major problems.
I ran on the trail to 5, because I had been here yesterday. Left the trail, past the cliff, to the next trail, and into the swamp to find...nothing. Again, I was close but not quite. Sloshed through the other marsh to the N and found the control on the hill.
6 was another long trail run, but I decided to take it, to conquer these trails. I moved well, got to the exact place where I planned to leave the trail, and once again, got close before I stopped. Wandered a bit here, which was bad. Eventually made myself bail out towards the trail on the E, and of course, I found my control along the way. AP says I lost less than a minute on this leg, so the trail running must have been fairly fast. I definitely wandered for a few minutes.
The leg to 8: another great one! Tough, had to read the whole way. I loved it. Took it very slow, but executed exactly as I planned. Finally!
Onto to 9, then decided to take the road to 10. Clearly saw the man-made object on the road (yesterday's Go control) and headed into the woods. But once again, I was close but not quite. This time I was lazy with compass direction, I think.
I was disappointed in today's run, even though my minutes/k were faster. Most of the gains were from trail runs.
I need to get better at reading and planning near the control before the Champs next month.
Overall, though, I really enjoyed this weekend. The weather was perfect, the trees were beautiful, Sandy was a great roommate, and I caught up with lots of folks. And I really liked the course design on day 2. I loved challenging my brain on this map again. Thanks UNO!
http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...