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The Grunt. My second foray in to the GOAT style event. I have to say that after two of these events, the first five controls are like trying to hold a cat by the tail and pet it at the same time. There will be screaming, hissing, blood, a period of calm, and relief when it is over.
My game plan.... hold on to interkosmos as long as possible. All started well, and then they said "Go". IK started off like a banshee, the same way he did at the Possum Trot. Straight up a hill. We were #1 and #2. Turn and bolt for #2, still in the first 5. Then route choice came in to play. We terrained to the road, discussing whether to skip CP 3. We ran into Andy Dale and Justin B. as soon as we hit the road and started to follow on their tails. Right.... We watched their easy running styles glide ahead as they approached the control, but they were a little low, bobbled slightly and we started to gain on them. Of course we then turned toward #4 and they were gone again. I was sticking with IK fairly close. We had a group of blue shirts running together including Tom and Ian. Molly was with us for a brief period. All were discussing potential skips.
After 5, I tried to convince IK to take the trail to 6, but he shot off cross country and I fell in behind Tom and in front of Ian. I lost the map going to this control. Luckily I could follow as runners were everywhere. We made some passes and were still doing well. We caught glimpses of IK at 6 and 7, but didn't see him again until the finish. Somewhere in here we lost sight of Tom, but picked up Charlie from CAOC. It was now Ian, Charlie and I in a loose pack, still running our own course, wondering how things would shake out. I regained the map going on the way to 7, then used the ridge to get to the trail on 8. It wasn't necessary as the reentrant wasn't that large, but I figured I better start navigating or I would find myself in no man's land. 8 was a fairly easy find, but my route put me slightly behind Ian and Charlie. Coming to the hilltop towards 9, Ian and I went right, Charlie went left, and I don't remember seeing him again. I followed Ian for a bit and lost the map again. I remember yelling to Ian, "have you punched 9?" just as he reached down for the control....
Ian and I were now together. We drifted a little south towards 10 and found ourselves in some thick stuff. A hop to the south side of the stream and we were moving again. What followed was a spike fest. The next 13 controls came easy. A little discussion, a little slower, but good solid shared navigation. I questioned Ian a little and he questioned me a little, but good partnering throughout.
Then came the sprint to the finish.... We agreed on the way in to 26, that neither one of us would try to burn the other one off. I took a bit to come to that end, as neither of us had much energy to speak. We punched 26, no problem, then set off at 90 degrees east of where we should have gone. We had a nice catch, but didn't realize our error until we had an "O-sh**" moment when we found ourselves almost back at the start. We stumbled and mumbled our way back to the finish where Ian sniped me for a win by a fraction of a second.... :-)
Good for a top 33% finish. Lots of good runners. Great performance by the MNOC crew. 6 out of the top 12. First place in Mens and Womens Open category.
** I was talking with Andy Dale post race. He wanted to know if the MN crew always started races in that manner? He pictured a moderate jog to #1 as people reviewed maps and skips, not the all out sprint, inflicted upon us by IK. I told him it was my experience that this was common. I didn't tell him it was only my second GOAT"