BAOC
Oh-in-the-Poison-Oaks ey! ay! ugh. A brutal
course... pretty much an IOF Long, but not runnable. Complex legs and a good map; but steeeep uphills, 480 m climb in the first 4 km of the course; later, lots of tall grass and chaparral/PO crossings. The hillsides were quite loose. I started well and led until 80+ minutes into the race. Felt reasonable; only, a few times had sharp pain in
front of either ear—temporal artery? The pain went away as soon as I commanded myself to relax.
Soon after I made a large error on #8 it became clear that the course was not doable in under 2 hours. So I slowed down after #10 quite a bit. Slowed down even more as I started to get this cottony feeling in my left leg around #12, and cramped big time on the climb to Control 15. Got into the finish all wobbly... it was almost impossible to run in the end. I think my physical problems and training limitations would have still dictated my performance even if I hadn't the neurology going on; clearly felt the aftereffects of The Relay.
Syd seemed tired, too... Mikkel however was sick and started slow, and he didn't do the Relay. Or make as many errors as I did.