Mid-Atlantic Championships!
This is typically one of my favorite races of the season because of the club competition and relay component. This is also the first time in a few years that I have been relatively healthy for this race, so I was excited.
QOC chartered a bus for the race, which is a fantastic idea. The bus ride up was good, and was spent in some speculation over relay team lineups and strategic distribution of who should run what courses.
I ended up running red, as it seemed like more points were up for grabs there. The event had a fun atmosphere, and it was nice to see some familiar faces, including Clem and Forest making an appearance!
My race, on the other hand, was a total disaster, as I never really got into the map. RG:
http://dvoa.org/cgi/gadget/reitti.cgi?act=map&...On #1, I took the safest route I could see, trying to get as close to the "random charcoal on a hillside" control before attacking. I still failed, and spent about two minutes circling the hillside.
2 and 3 went better, as there were more features to read, and I was able to execute those well.
On #4, however, the wheels came off. I started off well, and went right past the rocky ground right on the line, but my first mistake was drifting a bit parallel to the stream before crossing it, so I was not confident where I finally crossed it. I continued along the line of marshes until seeing what I thought was the thicket of fallen trees and attacking up. Nothing. Checked what looked like the next reentrant over - nothing. Then I dropped back to the marshes, and stumbled through the deadfall for a while. Came across Balter, who was going to the same control and turned around. Attacked from virtually the same spot as the first time and missed it again, overshooting. Finally, saw the flag as GSwede was coming in from the other direction. Still have no idea what I did or where I ended up. 8 minutes gone.
I had planned to cruise around the course without pushing too hard while saving some energy for the relay, but now I knew I had to race hard just to get the club some points. I ran well to 5, keeping up with GSwede and staying focused when he veered lower than I wanted to go.
I was clean to 6 and 7 and then decided to take the road all the way around to 8. I am still not sure if that was the best choice, but I pushed hard on the road and won the split by over a minute. I'd like to know what routes Wyatt, Jon, and Chris took.
Fairly clean the rest of the way, but not enough to get ahead of Wyatt, who was much cleaner than I was on the day. Ended up 2nd on Red, two minutes back.