Race Evaluation
US Classic Champs: Red Day 2
Nadim
| 1. | +01:15 | Steve Gregg and Tapio started 4 and 2 minutes ahead of me respectively. Tapio had finished 2 minutes faster than I had the day before. I was feeling ready to run and thought the course might be both easier physically and technically. I was wrong. I had a bad bearing right out of the start, going north instead of east like everyone else did. I corrected quickly, hit a trail and then the road at the bend. I came up along the rock climbing a spur one earlier than the one I wanted. I went on and got distracted by a control on a boulder uphill from the correct spur, then came down to the right spot. | |||||
| 2. |
Did not plan ahead Could not relocate Not thinking clearly Unused to map +21:00 | I looked at the leg ahead and sort of connected the dots. The many many boulder dots. I never saw the obvious route up the sandy reentrant to the left. I got the right distance and started looping. At one point I saw Tapio also searching. It was a small comfort to know that better navigators than me were having trouble too. Eventually I went on past the correct area and hunted a bit east. I attacked off what I thought to be the end of the reentrant near the control twice, went to the road and saw a parking area on one side and earth bank on the other and attacked again. I attacked from below too. None of these were solid attacks. I finally attacked from the road and kept on until I reached a second reentrant near a big bare rocky outcrop. I soon found control #3 and went straight to #2 from there. | |||||
| 3. | I remembered the way back to #3 and ran a good pace. | ||||||
| 4. | Still shell shocked, I opted to take the road and attack from the bend. I was still hesitant and tired doing this. | ||||||
| 5. | +01:30 | After a 30 second water break and a gel, I went straight. I got just one reentrant south of the control but turned south and found another control before going north again. | |||||
| 6. | I ran fairly straight, keeping a good watch on bearing and going more slowly. I ready the contours well and nearing the less detailed plateau where the control was, I was able to read the knoll in. I paused at a knoll and saw Dmitry's son just north of me as I ran the last bit southeast to the control. I spotted it about 100m away. | ||||||
| 7. | I ran straight and spiked it. I didn't see the control before I picked a spot to drop down and turned out to be right on it. | ||||||
| 8. |
Bad distance judgement +02:00 | I was glad to be reaching the halfway point and top of the course in elevation. Being overweight, I felt I'd do better going downhill. As I left, one of the F21+ women (don't know her name) came in behind. I ran down the reentrant then climbed up at a bend. Over the formline knoll, I was sort of surprised at how far I'd come in what seemd like such a short time. I cut right a bit but not enough. I dropped down on a smaller spur with parallel shape just east of the one with the control. After hunting there, I went to the correct spur but hunted much lower than necessary. I climbed up and saw the F21+ woman who had left #7 when I had. I hunted too close to the reentrant NW of the control and the woman found it and gave it away. She sort of apologized for doing so. | |||||
| 9. |
Bad route choice Did not check features en route Unused to map +11:00 | The F21+ woman had run ahead seemingly going straight. I made a poor decision to go NW a bit to avoid climbs and anticipated hitting the trail which was on the line. I got too far north. I kept track of the ridges adequately but not exactly where I was crossing them. In the field past the control, I lost confidence about which ridge I was on and kept going until I hit the road. I went south on it a bit and attacked from the same place that I had when going for #4. I read the rocks pretty well into the control. | |||||
| 10. | I decided to play it safe and followed the rentrant/wash down to the trail. I left the trail at the bend. Initially I'd thought I was going to encounter a hill on the straight path and would need to stay east of it. I realized soon enough that I read up for down. Staying in the reentrant and probably passing #3 w/o seeing it, I rounded the big bend and angled up. I ended up spiking the control, seeing the ribbon on the tree before spotting the somewhat hidden control. | ||||||
| 11. | As I left going down the reentrant, I saw Hillary Seger ahead. I caught-up and passed after climbing out of the reentrant at a bend. I was a bit right of the control and stopped. I spotted the spur it was on about the same time that Hillary did. I think I got there just ahead. | ||||||
| 12. | Hillary and I went a bit south of straight, exchanging leads some. I stopped before the trail, spotted the rocky area ahead and got there first. | ||||||
| 13. | I let myself get suckered into looking at the control on the rocks half-way there. I reasoned it would be better to be safe at this point. Hillary got ahead but I'm not sure who punched first. | ||||||
| 14. | +01:30 | I felt it a bit cruel to have to climb for this control. Really feeling being out-of-shape, the altitude and the extra distance of the errors, I crawled. Hillary was running better but stopped as I shuffled along going straightish. We exchanged leads but at the road, I was ahead. I thought it best to leave from a bend a bit north on the road and then cut in. I expected to hit the U-shaped trail but was a bit high. I cut right and higher on the trail, even going right at the next fork. I ended up on a knoll with a yellow control 150m NE of the control. Hillary was below and closer but I ran direct and quickly while she was assessing the area. At the bare rock, I stopped, Hillary went a bit right and descended ahead of me. After looking around below and seeing orienteers just to my left, I took a big drop where I was and saw the control to my left, ahead of Hillary. | |||||
| 15. | I ran straight, hit the trail, then paused at the control on the right. Dropping further, I hit the control, a bit tired. | ||||||
| F. | I tried to keep a good pace on the sandy wash, following the streamers off the map. I almost missed two turns but really just didn't have a good sprint left in me. Being out of shape, making the huge mistakes by not planning and several others gave me this poor result but I was happy to have had the chance to run. |
Total Time Lost - 00:38:15