Race Evaluation
US Sprint & UltraLong champs: Middle: Red X
Nadim
| 1. | +01:00 | I was reading the wet ditch and close to being on-line but I let myself get drawn off to the left, across the ditch to a rootstock :( | |||||
| 2. | I ran straight and spiked it. I suppose I was fortunate to stay out of the muck too. | ||||||
| 3. | I started to angle to the field but reasoned that if the wet ditch at #1 was dry, the marsh would be. I cut a straighter route and felt it was fast. I crossed the road and read a reentrant to my left. I knew how to attack from there and just before getting there, I saw Clinton Morse who had started 2 minutes ahead of me. | ||||||
| 4. | I cut across toward the trail intersection and joined in behind Clint who had gone around. The control was easy but getting there was not. Clint led us in. | ||||||
| 5. | An elephant track had formed along the hillside. I somehow had gotten ahead of Clint on this but others were around and it was hard to run and pass. We stayed a little high to avoid the green and it was fairly easy to follow the shore to the control. | ||||||
| 6. | +01:45 | I led out of #5 but I wasn't reading the map very well. I drifted left but wasn't sure exactly how far I'd gone forward or to the side. Clint stayed along a higher route. When I crossed a reentrant and saw an obvious trail, I looked for it on the map but didn't see it. My eyes weren't reading the map very well but also, the course leg line was partly obscuring the trail on the map. Clint came past and I thought he must have been to the control. I ran back and realized it wasn't there. I ran forward again but was too low, getting to a spur. After some studying of the map, I knew what I'd done and went straight to it. | |||||
| 7. | +00:45 | I ran through the green which fortunately had been mashed down a bit. When I got to a trail, I didn't recognize where I was on the map. Ted Good said that there was a triangle intersection but the map didn't show it that way so perhaps that's where I came out. I saw the field and ran toward it, eventually getting back on the trail. I passed Pavalina and Yekaterina and slogged up the grade, leaving it to cut through to the next open area. I stopped at the place that I figured the control was in but couldn't see it. I jumped off the trail a step or two and then saw it behind some tall grass as Yekaterina came behind me. | |||||
| 8. | +00:50 | I ran out okay and started to go to the control but I hesitated at the end and backed up on the trail. I went a little way up the one to the right, then came back before just going in... | |||||
| 9. | I thought briefly about going up into the white woods, then entertained the thought of a straighter route through the field. As I approached a wall of green, I reconsidered and climbed to the trail. I read ahead on the map, seeing the trail bends, and when I got to the triangle, I cut off and basically kept a bearing when the right fork ran out. Joe Brautigam did a similar thing and pointed out that we could have left #8 on an intermitant trail which would have saved even more time. | ||||||
| 10. | +00:15 | I ran straight at first which made me cross some big contours. Still only a short way into this leg, I had troubles reading the map and making sense of the trails again. I started ignoring the trails and curled my way into the control after being a bit too low. | |||||
| 11. | I ran a bit risky just following the trail until I could see the pond. | ||||||
| 12. | I followed the trail and ran the edge of the depression that #14 was on. | ||||||
| 13. | +01:15 | I climbed a bit to save going both up and down a lot on the lower route. I descended in the right place and followed the shore somewhat to the hill with the control. I missed by being just a bit too low. I did a small circle and came back before figuring it out. Just as I had, a woman whom I had passed along the way walked up to the control and knew where it would be. | |||||
| 14. | I ran a bit recklessly on trails and probably should have climbed at one fork. Instead, I ended up near #11 and then I just ran another trail from memory to #14. | ||||||
| 15. | +00:10 | I angled across to the trail, then as it bent away up the steep hill, I reasoned it would be better to angle up on the right side of it. It seemed that there was almost another trail for part of the way but this was probably an elephant track. At the top, I cut right and descended a bit to the interection. I took the first left but should have taken the next too. Instead, I hesitated. Dharia was there too. After that I ran the rest at a good clip down to and across the fields. I cut past a boy scout football game and in near the field corner to spike the rest of control. | |||||
| 16. | +00:40 | I started running straight and found another elephant track. Some older runners were cutting across my path left to right and they distracted me. I stopped reading the map and thought I was near the control. I ended up in a field to the right, near the marsh and the road. I had to back out a long way because the vegetation was too thick around the clearing. As I got back to where I needed to be to get on course, Joe Brautigam came running through barely slowing down. He led me in and there was no room to pass. Joe had also just turned his ankle. | |||||
| 17. | I followed Joe out and to the road. I felt guilty passing him but I was still trying to make-up time myself. I knew that Joe would have been way ahead of me at that point but he did motivate me to run harder. | ||||||
| F. | I started to run hard to stay ahead of Joe but I soon realized that he was not pushing it in. I slowed a little. |
Total Time Lost - 00:06:40