Race Evaluation
Blue Hills Traverse: Traverse
levitin
| 1. | I stayed to the right, off the trail. | ||||||
| 2. | In a pack. HR for legs 1 and 2 157. | ||||||
| 3. | Left of the 1st green blob, then right of the 2nd, along the trail beneath the control. | ||||||
| 4. | Ran the trail between the green forests, intending to take the indistinct trail running through the white woods. Overshot a bit but returned. I had seen Peter G. take a left off the same trail I was on, but I didn't recognize the indistinct trail at the time. Cross the stream, through the marsh, then was off to the R. HR for legs 3-4 164. | ||||||
| 5. | Spent way too much time thinking before I took off for the road. I attacked fromthe road by using the end of the dense growth on the hill top. HR 160. | ||||||
| 6. | Plan and execution were right on. I planned to take the trail around to the left, and think I saw Charlie run off onto the wrong trail ahead of me. Went through the fence, and was momentarily flummoxed when it appeared that the gate at the far end was locked. It wasn't. Ran down the trail to beneath the control, and attacked from beneath. HR 160. | ||||||
| 7. | Intent was to contour across the hillside, but I fell to the trail instead, crossed the stream NE of the control, and then ran up through the little reentrant on the contour line. HR 163. | ||||||
| 8. | Somewhere along here, Peter G. appeared while I was confused, so I tried to stay with him. At the SE/NW trail E of 8, Charlie went over the top or left, Peter was ahead of me running low to the right, and I thought I'd be clever by contouring. Bad idea, woods were trashy and thick, slow going, and both Charlie and Peter were long gone off the front. HR 167. | ||||||
| 9. | For some reason when I got to the street I thought I wanted to go directly across, so I waited a while before deciding to attack from the swamp edge, and not from the trail beyond the road. Duh. No one was at the water stop during the couple of minutes I was there taking a Gu, retying my shoe, and drinking. HR 154 | ||||||
| 10. | Around the hill, up the trail adjacent to the light green, and then attacked from the trail jct. HR 157. | ||||||
| 11. | Did this leg in a really stupid way. For some reason maybe I was thirsty, or wanted to see who was in front of me (missing the traditional Saeger loop on the west side of Rt 28?) I decided to go to 11 via the water stop. I didn't notice until I was almost at the paved intersection that the water stop was on a little trail on the far side. So I did NOT stop at the water stop before 11, but I did approach 11 from the trail from the SW. Duh. This tricky area was not so tricky coming from this direction, but it was at a cost. HR 157. | ||||||
| 12. | Another guy was ahead of me leaving 11, but he was quickly off the front. HR 162. | ||||||
| 13. | At the water stop, I had some food, found out I had lost quite a bit of time on the circuitous assault on #8, and left by myself just a bit before the Olafsen group. Along the road until I saw I had missed the beginning of the stony ground, so I backtracked, heading along its edge until I hit the wall. Punched before most of the Olafsen group. HR 154. | ||||||
| 14. | +03:00 | Major mistake. The direct route looked so much shorter than running around the right side of the green patch. I tried to head west, while the Olafsen group bailed to the road. After struggling through waist-high mountain laurel, I made it to the trail, having completely overshot the parking lot. I had to run NE on the road in order to go around the buildings. HR 158. | |||||
| 15. | Followed the Olafsen group over the top along the straight line route, though they disappeared off the front. I think I heard them going to 16 while I approached 15, but didn't see them. HR 161. | ||||||
| 16. | Unclear map reading while en route, so I overshot to the trail and attacked from beyond it. Punched just behind Andrew Donaldson. HR 155. | ||||||
| 17. | Andrew and I both ran the trails to the right, though he hesitated at the first junction and was running faster. He got to 17 first. HR 161. | ||||||
| 18. | Straight. slogged through a bit of green/swamp to the first trail, then ran the steep saddle between the two hills, and right up the reentrant holding the control. I knew where I was in the circle, but I saw others just E of the point. HR 157. | ||||||
| 19. | Trails around the swamp, and attacked from the west. I saw Jeff Schapiro heading west and couldn't figure out what he was doing there, until I was running 20-21 and saw the route back past 19, at which point it made sense. HR 149. | ||||||
| 20. | Trails around left to the stone wall, which was indistinct, but the trail junction was happily evident. Actually got into the circle on the trail below before I realized I was about 20m below the control, and now had to climb the extremely steep slope. It was hands and feet, but the control was right there as soon as I topped the rise. HR 158. | ||||||
| 21. | Trails. Saw Andrew again at 21. I punched first, but he got ahead after leaving. HR 161. | ||||||
| 22. | Passed 19, on the northmost trail. Andrew ran off the front, but I determined that running on part of the paved road was an inferior route choice to running through or just above the finish area. Running through the finish, I hoped, would also give the benefit or possibly showing footsteps in the snow leaving 22. I did not need the footsteps to make sense of the terrain, though I was momentarily confused by the small rectangular building that I encountered before the "+"-shaped building due W of the control. I gained a few minutes on Andrew with this choice. HR 157. | ||||||
| 23. | No one in sight. HR 162. | ||||||
| F. | Huzzah. HR 171. |
Total Time Lost - 00:03:00