1. | S-1. Chasing the crowd. David Onkst on my left and Illiana in front of us. I pulled ahead of David and lost Illiana as she took the right fork. | ||||||
2. | 1-2. I dog legged back a little high and trailing someone ahead at first, but lower. That person seemed to be fogetting the bridge. I attacked off the second driveway and set in to walking most of the way up. I heard Dave Pruden closing in on me and got running when I saw the control ahead. | ||||||
3. | 2-A. My bearing leaving #2 was to the right a bit. Dave Pruden was lower and passed me. I realized I was too high when the way ahead steepened sharply so I dropped down under Dave. I was undecided on control order going into the window loop. Dave Pruden went for the knoll first. I hesitated but reasoned that it'd be extra climb to do it that way. I headed off left and down toward A after the reentrant as Dave climbed. I was second guessing my choice when the green made me weave so much. I figured I could use the bend to attack from but a knoll ahead was more prominent than expected. I went to it as it was on my bearing and I spiked it perfectly. | ||||||
4. | A-B. With the rounding of the hill, I climbed a bit more initially and must have corrected midway. Approaching the depressions, I saw Vadim power walking back up the hill. At first I thought he'd missed and was correcting. I got a little further past some rocks and looked left, downward to where the control was. I'm told that there were 2 controls, both with water and both with letter B, but I only saw one. | ||||||
5. | B-C. I ran up the hill better than I thought I would. I stayed in the saddle until I thought the ridge was ending but I acutall climbe onto the ridge a little early. I corrected and pretty much spiked C. | ||||||
6. | C-6. I went out of C to the left to contour a bit. This got me into more green than necessary and the reentrant I was avoiding wasn't that big. A guy was trailing me when I ran up the reentrant (DVOA?). I cut right at one point, a little early and he seemed to drop off. After over a rise, I realized I had farther to go but by climbing to the right, I could move better and had a flatter run to the control. | ||||||
7. | 6-7. I was worried about the end of the knoll being too vague to attack from. I didn't go to the cliffs as that involved climbing which seemed unecessary. I forced myself to turn to the right after leaving the edge of the spur and eventually saw the land dropping into a reentrant far ahead--good thing that there was good visibility here. | ||||||
8. | +00:50 | 7-8. I started out going straight. The vegetation pushed me left and eventually after crossing the Applachian Trail, I hit the curving trail. I took that to the next intersection, above and west of the big reentrant. I read my way down and felt confident of where I was. I think Scott Pleban had gone straight and look unsure of his position. I lost an exactitude of position as I cut right more but below, when I saw the main reentrant curving, I knew where to look. I saw the control. Though Scott was closer; he hadn't seen it yet. We both got there at the same time. | |||||
9. | 8-G. Scott started off first. I decided to go through the window ahead with GHFED. I was reading a subtle ridge-like contour and following that toward G until it ran out and got ahead of Scott briefly. He cut left too and got ahead again. We came over the small ridge before the control. I was unsure but didn't want to miss the control on my left side. A contour there seemed like the reentrant that G was in so I cut more right only to find that this was wrong. Wyatt Riley and Vadim were in the area. I cut right and Scott was already higher and closer so he got there first. | ||||||
10. | G-H. Leaving the control, Scott set off on a bearing. My bearing was a bit to his left. I found better open ground and caught up but when that worsened, I cut left for the trail. I was on that for a bit, catching Scott again who was paralleling it unknowlingly. I yelled over but by the time he came over, we were at the intersection with the road. I led from there and spiked the control. I head another person from behind and didn't know who it was. | ||||||
11. | +01:00 | H-F. I left H ahead of Scott and the unknown person. My bearing was toward E--I was going to attack off of the trail bend. Not until crossing the road and going over the ridge did I realize that I needed to to to F first. I corrected but was unsure exactly where I was because I hadn't seen the trail I was looking to attack E from. I spotted 3 people running from right to left and presumed correctly that the were leaving F. I cut back toward the stream that I'd crossed, and found the control quickly. However, the damage was done. I was at least a minute behind the others. | |||||
12. | F-E. I hit E well leaving F and going straight. | ||||||
13. | E-D. I kept a careful watch on my bearing and mostly walked the way to D. Still, somehow I got a bit high. I hit the charcoal terrace before it but saw the control on what seemed almost downhill from the terrace. Perhaps I was just disorienteed from the climbing. | ||||||
14. | D-14. I made my own switchbacks to keep moving up the hill leaving D. Once over it, I angled down to the Appalachian Trail. I hit that and turned left to the one charchoal terrace in the white woods. I followed the rocks down from there. I picked up on the change in contour to my left--almost a reentrant. It was easier to see in the field than on the map. This took me right across the small trail that was drawn onto the map, and further to the linear marsh. I saw the control above on the hill hanging high shortly afterward, having spiked it. | ||||||
15. | !4-15. Leaving #14, I stayed left and hit the road. I left it briefly to see if I could cross the creek w/o getting too wet but decided against it. After crossing the bridge, I cut right on a trail, but then almost straight into the woods past a house. The other black lines on the map didn't make sense. I found a recreation control before the#15 but knew from the field ahead that I had to cut right. | ||||||
16. | 15-Aid Station. I ran in to the Aid station, much the way that I went to #1, but in reverse. The time on this leg doesn't include the time at the aid station, only getting there. | ||||||
17. | Aid Station - 16. I was drinking and eating for about 2 minutes before leaving. I followed the streamers but was a bit confused with the map at first. I took the road and realized as I ran along it that I wouldn't be able to run long without an unplanned nature stop. However I kept running and came off the road on the spur above #16. I spiked it. | ||||||
18. | +00:40 | 16-17. Partway up the hill leaving #16, I took a nature break of about 40 seconds. On the road, I got distracted by a couple walking their dog. After passing them, my cut off came-up quick. Withe the logging changes, I almost missed it and was unsure as I walked up the rocky ground. I stuck closer to the spur than I planned but soon saw the control. | |||||
19. | 17-K. I contoured around the reentrent somewhat, leaving #17. I was following the most open ground but punched through a small thicker area. I thought I was further south of the green that had been draw in but suddenly I saw the corner. I turned there and follwed the steepening of the terrain to the control. I was worried when I didn't see it until the last moment, depite reading a reentrant past the control. | ||||||
20. | K-L. I went down slowly at first but more quickly when I saw it. It was nice to have some downhill running. | ||||||
21. | L-J. I was worried about this leg. I planned to use a grouping of 3 mapped boulders midway there but when I saw 3 boulders, the orientation of them was off 90 degrees. I kept going and eventually saw it to me left a little; lower than expected. | ||||||
22. | J-I. I kept a fair bearing but was avoiding boulder groups and greener areas. The control was not as hard to find as I expected. | ||||||
23. | +02:16 | I-22. I slogged up the hill, pushing trough some mountain laurel near the top. I rounded the drawn-in green on the left side and arced my way down. I hit the trail above where it bends so I took that down to a bend. Coming further east, I still had trouble making out the drawn-in green until the very corner. Rounding that, I saw a lot of rock and only one rock mapped. I went to the biggest one which was further away from the corner than I thought it'd be. Not finding it, I looked back and below. There was a large boulder +2 contours down that I went for--I wasn't sure what else to do even though I didn't think the control would be there. Not finding it at that rock, I returned upward and soon saw it. I had somehow ran just above the correct boulder and didn't see it on the other side. | |||||
24. | 22-23. I ran down the reentrant and wondered if continuing down through the green area would work. It wasn't as bad as the mapping might imply. I had also been worried that looking fo the trail to the right might be fruitless. At the trail on the other side. I cut right briefly, saw another orienteer who looked like David Pruden, then attacked. I spiked it quiker than I thought I would and got my hopes up of being ahead of Dave Pruden. | ||||||
25. | 23-24. Leaving #23, I never saw the trail. I cut left sharply before the creek when I saw a bend and ran up to the bridge made fo the trail. I ran half way across it before it bounced too much for me. I attacked off of a trail bend to spike the control. | ||||||
26. | 24-25. I ran to the trail and left at a bend. The many streams and ditches were hard to read. Some probably had been flood damaged and were bigger than mapped. I knew the one before the control wasn't the main creek because it wasn't flowing enough. I leaped over the ditches and streams, staying pretty dry but this induced cramp warnings. I spike the control mainly using a compass bearing. | ||||||
27. | 25-26. I dog legged back to cross the stream and stayed dry at first. However, the last one I needed to cross was too much to worry about--I splashed through it and hit the control well. | ||||||
28. | 26-27. I missed the trail option at first so when angling though the light green, I had to cut left more to get to the road. I was fighting off cramps so I had to keep the pace within reason. | ||||||
29. | 27-28. The road was making me cramp more. I used the grass where possible. | ||||||
F. | 28-F. I was hoping to be ahead of Dave Pruden still and measuring my pace to keep the cramping down. It turned out that I hadn't seen Dave Pruden back near #23--it was someone else. Dave had finished 2 minutes ahead of me. |
Total Time Lost - 00:04:46