Ultralong Champs at Fountainhead (is it named after Ayn Rand's novel?) Park, VA
This was tough! Glad I ran it and happy with my result. Started out somewhat slow, running with Rachel and Galina to #1, mostly straight. Iliana caught up to us going into the control (she started a little late) and left us in the dust. Took the rightmost reentrant to the trail going to #2 and approached it from the top. Galina took the deeper reentrant and we met at the control. Running together next few controls; Jeff appeared with us as well. I didn't feel super energetic today but I'm proud of my execution and aggressiveness of #5. Then I got tired and #6 was rough; I took the lower lake route and approached the control from below. Spacing out to #7. Had an energy gel on my way to #8 and decided I will take the left reentrant-to-trail route to #9. Galina went straight and that was the last time I saw her. This was a good route it turns out. 10-13 were kind of spacy, Joe caught up to Jeff and I dragging a few cadets with him. #14 was a difficult long leg. I admit I did not have a good plan at all and the mountain bike trails seemed to overwhelm my ability to read the contours properly. I also twisted my right ankle on one of those trails and that distracted me enough that I lost contact with the map. Thankfully, Jeff not only helped me out of a stream but also led me until I realized our location. From there I was mostly back on track, had another energy gel at #15 and started speeding up primarily to avoid running behind some super smelly (like really bad) cadets. Rest of the course went by swiftly, and I was happy to finish racing some older gentleman.
I wish there was some hot food and beverages after the finish because I was dying for something warm in my stomach considering all the water on the course was almost freezing.
Nice course by Nadim on this awesomely open and hilly terrain.
routegadget