Brown long course at Turkey Mt, West Point A meet. One of the relatively earlier starters. Pretty good run in total, and no physical problems other than it being hard.
1. Looked at the route on trail around to the right, and started more or less straight while I was thinking about it. Decided halfway to the trail that I wanted trail around to the right, and then felt silly I had climbed up and over the hill instead of just zipping down the spur to the NE. Then on the trail around, where I saw Rhonda who was out for a run, then Lou Pataki and Don Davis. Cut the corner of the last big hill and across the marshy stream, crossing it again just before the control. Reading the terrain very well. That was the last time I saw anybody, and I had to wake up a couple of controls, maybe 3 and 4.
2. Good leg, climbing gradually along the red line, finding the reentrant above the big rocky spur, climbing across the lower of the two long flat bare areas and straight in.
3. Also good, Pretty straight, reading all the knolls after the stream and seeing the rock just R of the control from a little distance.
4. Also good. Downhill on compass, saw the big cliff off to the R and counted one-two small reentrants and spiked it.
5. Straight didn't look like any fun. I didn't really consider going right on trails, but maybe that was better. Headed north of the line across the EW stream and across that spur to the NS stream, thinking I would find a gap in the cliffs and climb to go left of the marshes to the trail, but never found a reasonable gap. So I just kept on below the cliffs, meeting someone looking for #1 and eventually cutting across the end of the last hill and picking up the trail by the marsh. Then trail around, seemed like a long time to the water stop. Cut in a little high and looked around for a bit, before heading downhill to my right and finding it. Maybe a minute lost there.
6. Hustling along the best I could. Down the intermittent trail to the S, then up the hill from right after the bridge.
7. Slowing down, getting tired. No problem. Kept going until I saw the flag a few lines up.
8. Along the trail until the big boulder on the left, up by the end of the stone wall, and then couldn't find it. Left or right? Went right and got as far as the next rocks down before turning back. Bad luck. Leaving, it seemed like I crossed the middle of the wall, so maybe the map is a little iffy there. Lost 2 minutes.
9. Careful, in from the trail at the end of the stone wall. Flag was a little higher up the hill than mapped, but I saw it from 25 meters so no problem.
10. Trail around to the left. A bit longer than going R, and apparently a bit slower too. But easy.
My route.
4 minutes behind bl, but 3 of it in the last few controls after the bridge.