Blue Hills Traverse. It became apparent pretty quickly that this was not going to be a good day physically. I felt pretty toasted after #6, and ran only slowly and sporadically after that, almost exclusively walking by the last loop or so. Surprised to meet up with J-J after blowing #3 to the right, then blew #4 as well in his company, going by 5 on the way. Phil was standing above #5 looking puzzled, so we told him where it was. After 4, 5 was easy the second time, but my energy was disappearing by 6 and J-J got away. Alone at 7, and then confused by the trails on the way to 8. Alone all the way there, but meeting up with Dean and a couple of the AR folks at the control. Pulled away from Dean on the way to 9, but then met up with him again at the top of the reentrant above 10. Ken Sr. came zooming by on the way to 12, and Dean showed up again, briefly. Ken was ahead going over the hill to 15, and it seems we made the same mistake, getting on the hill below the SW-NE wall and thinking we were above it, and drifting way down the hill, although I didn't see him until later. Confused about where I was on the trail for a while, and Ken showed up, a bit confused as well. He was moving faster, and I caught glimpses of him on the way to 15, 16 and 17, and the last I saw of him was when he was leaving 17 and I wasn't there yet. One control that was hard for me to find was 20. I got sucked off by a larger rock higher up the side, and then wandered down too far before seeing the trail and heading back. Then I did some really dumb stuff going from 21 to 22, getting above the line of cliffs and heading all the way up to the trail because it looked so ugly to climb down, then missing which trail I was on and getting way too far N. Then walking, walking. Leaving 26 I saw Lori and Presto coming in behind me, so I tried to jog to hold them off. At least I beat the greyhound!
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