Race Evaluation
Batona 500, Day 2: Blue
Tundra/Desert
| 1. | I will post the scanned map here. | ||||||
| 2. | Took trails. Saw feet running towards Control 8. | ||||||
| 3. | Found pfc at Control 3. | ||||||
| 4. | Peter went straighter to Control 4 than I did. | ||||||
| 5. |
Took a chance Lacked confidence +01:10 | I took a chance, throwing myself into the mix of green and yellow. I figured things out pretty well and found the clearing just N of ours, looked to my right (south), but did not see the bag. I proceeded to the trail further N, found its junction with the dry ditch, reflected off of that and saw the control. It was just a tad further than where I had looked. Peter got there right before me. | |||||
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| 8. |
Bad map reading +00:35 | Passing the point at which I had seen William, I thought I had actually made up a minute or so on him on this loop. I was going to go through Control 1 and then cut in. But as I cut in, I misidentified the green blobs and a trail and ended up on the same long trail. I then took the next trail SW, and saw the control from long ways away. | |||||
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| 10. | I missed taking a left at my desired trail junction, so run through the woods just for a moment. | ||||||
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| 14. | This leg, and the following six or so, were classic Moscow orienteering. The vegetation is different but the map and navigation challenge (challenge?) are the same. I used a lot of the trails, only cutting off little corners. | ||||||
| 15. | There were two unmapped hunter stands and several unmapped green blobs where I went. | ||||||
| 16. | A West Point guy found this one for me. Never saw him afterwards. | ||||||
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| 20. | I was a little confused by the quarry bank that made a right angle within my field of view. I could not find such a square reentrant on the map, so wobbled a bit before seeing the bag. | ||||||
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| 22. | The blueberry was atrocious on the way... Dominie was at Control 22. He said something about Vladimir as a fat old man (bastard). Well. Payback's a canine. At least I wasn't the fat old man wearing rainbow tights. | ||||||
| 23. | As I got over to the paved road, I slowed down to eat a Gu. I heard footsteps behind me and they approached quickly. It was... an attack badger! Well. You know who. Mr. Swampfox was moving a lot faster, but I also vaguely recognized he was on Red this weekend. Then, there were more footsteps approaching rapidly. This time it was Mr. OJ. He was going at a pace I'd never find sustainable. | ||||||
| 24. | When I finished drinking at the control, OJ was already a third of the way to the next one; or so it seemed. Swampfox was also rapidly moving out of my field of view. So, I just hobbled towards the control. It was only later that I realized that we'd had this particular control already on the course, as #11. | ||||||
| 25. |
Bad map reading +00:50 | There was yet another sound of rapidly aproaching footsteps from behind as I ran on a trail. This time it was Andrew Comm. I did not have the best route, going up and down, but also did not execute well. I guess at this point I just wanted it all to be over. First I underran the spur by one trail, then I overran it by one. Turned right/looked up, and there it was. | |||||
| 26. | I ran after Andrew. | ||||||
| 27. | Andrew pulled ahead, but went wide at the control and I got to #27 quicker. | ||||||
| 28. | I ran trails to this one, and stayed ahead of Andrew. | ||||||
| 29. | I left the navigation on this one to Andrew, and we made good time. | ||||||
| F. |
Total Time Lost - 00:02:35