Race Evaluation
Billygoat XXXIV and 2nd Annual Speedy Goat fund raiser: Billygoat
jjcote
| 1. | With a crowd on the right-hand route, starting out in a good position, then sliding back a bit as hotshots moved past. I took a steeper/more aggressive route about 2/3 of the way up, which seemed to get me ahead of some of my cohorts. Somebody (Zac Barker, I think) was whining about how things were going, but they seemed to me to be going just fine. | ||||||
| 2. | At the front of the small pack, I think. | ||||||
| 3. | Pretty straight route, never even noticed the trail, just stuck to the high ground as far as the uncrossable marsh, then followed the edge of the green marsh to the southern tip, and straight from there. Neil was just ahead of me for the second half of the leg. | ||||||
| 4. | A few people disappeared out of sight up ahead, and I think Marty was just behind me. | ||||||
| 5. | Right-hand fork, Marty stopped about 2/3 of the way there, looking confused. I knew where we were and headed up to the marsh, but then I overshot the control by a smidge and Marty punched first. | ||||||
| 6. | Pretty straight, thought I saw Marty arriving up ahead of me, but when I got closer I realized that it wasn't; it was Nate. | ||||||
| 7. | Arrived at 7 just after Nate, and just ahead of Ernst. | ||||||
| 8. | Nate was too far to the left, and when he stopped and I caught up, I said, "we're too low". We were, but we were also just a bit too far, and in the time it took to hook back, Marty, Alex, and Ernst caught up. | ||||||
| 9. | The other three ran off, leaving me and Ernst together, and were ran as a pair from here to #17. I think it was on this leg that I took a header and just about faceplanted in a marsh, scraping one of my forearms. | ||||||
| 10. | Very slight miss, pausing at the marsh north of the circle for a couple of seconds before heading to the control. This was the last time we saw the other three. | ||||||
| 11. | Fine until we got to the edge of the circle, and we first went to the knoll just SW of the right one, but there was no flat so we crossed the wet and found it. This might have been the leg where I took the weird fall: I was going down a hill and tripped, and somehow rolled 180 degrees before hitting the ground, so that I kind of landed on my butt, but the momentum carried me through a backwards somersault such that I ended up on my hands and knees facing uphill, back in the direction I had come from. | ||||||
| 12. | Very straight, left of both green marshes at the end. | ||||||
| 13. | Just kept running past marshes, trying to keep track of how many, and finally I told Ernst that I thought it should be on the next one, and it was. | ||||||
| 14. | Almost an error -- things didn't look quite like I expected when we were about halfway, and as we continued I slowed down, and Ernst jot ahead. I asked if he knew where we were, because I didn't, and he was just about to continue when I spotted a flag in a reentrant down to the left, and it was ours. Phew! | ||||||
| 15. | Very open, very fast. | ||||||
| 16. | "Down to the trail as quickly as possible, right?" I was a couple of steps behind Ernst for most of the descent, but he kept either kicking up sticks, or looking like he was just about to fall, and I was worried that I'd end up running him over with my spikes, so I moved to the left a bit, and hit the trail ahead of him. I thought he'd go blazing past me on that trail, but I was able to stay ahead. We took the little trail loop on the left, then went down the big reentrant, and Ernst was looking for the control to the right. I had spotted what looked like a big cliff to the left, so I scooted over there, found it, and hollered for him to come get it. | ||||||
| 17. | Straight, didn't drop down. Sucked down about 8 ounces of my special sports drink at the aid station. | ||||||
| 18. | Skip! Unfortunately, I didn't know (and Ernst didn't realize) that he had already skipped #4 (although the pack he was in went there and he probably ran right past it), so this was his second skip, and he wound up DQ. | ||||||
| 19. | +05:00 | This almost worked out well. Took the trail, and I was making really good time. When I got to the junction 2/3 of the way there, it should have been easy to follow the base of the slope to the saddle and spike the control. Unfortunately, the hard running on 16 and this leg had fuzzied my brain, and I hadn't looked at the last part of the leg enough. I veered off to the left, thinking I needed to angle downhill, and mistook the terrace 200 m NNE of the control for the knoll I wanted, even though things didn't look right. I compounded the error by continuing SE almost to the first big depression, and finally noticed that my compass was about 90 degrees off from what I was expecting. There was a rise on my right, but I could see daylight over it, which wasn't right, so I climbed it, hit a trail, and realized I was about 250 m E of the control, beyond the water tank. Straightforward getting back from there. I last saw Ernst just when I was really getting confused, but I guess he got even more confused, and ended up finishing a while after me. Joe Brautigam and his train were arriving at the control just as I got there. | |||||
| 20. | Ahead of Joe and the Breton girls for part of the leg, arrived at the same time | ||||||
| 21. | Big pack going down to the lake, I was in the lead, but in the couple of seconds it took to spot the rootstock, everybody caught up. | ||||||
| 22. | Joe asked "Left or right?", and I went right while everybody else went left. I almost got delayed by horses (just slipped by in time), but the other guys (Joe, Anna, Elina, and JoeMok) were coming out of the control as I was approaching, so their route was faster. | ||||||
| 23. | Passed JoeMok and Elina, got to the control just behind Anna and Joe (Joe had waited up a bit for Elina). | ||||||
| 24. | Maintaining my position, though I was the last to punch -- I thought I had a better approach to the control, but I think Anna spotted it first and went straight in. | ||||||
| 25. | This might be where we caught up to Marty. | ||||||
| 26. | Just foot speed now, Joe, Marty, and Elina were in front of me, and I couldn't catch them, but I stayed ahead of Anna and JoeMok. | ||||||
| F. | Really great Goat! Thanks, Glen! |
Total Time Lost - 00:05:00