Race Evaluation
O' in the Oaks: Red: Day 1
Nadim
| 1. | +00:20 | 0-1 Almost a week of vacation hanging around San Francisco was nice. Did some training near Santa Rosa and Sunol. Ran serious hills in Muir Woods too. Starting the race, I was unfamiliar w/BAOC's starting procedure of being on-the-clock before getting your map. I jogged-up grabbed my map then waited. After a few seconds the others starting caught-up and were reading their maps. I asked the official and he told me to go. Immediately after locating, I start running up the trail--the wrong direction. I turned around and ran past the others who were just leaving on their routes. Going high, I somewhat spiked the control w/o further loss. | |||||
| 2. | 1-2 Rough compassing, climbing into a clearing, pausing, and then going along cow paths, I somewhat contoured around the large reentrant to save climb and spiked it. | ||||||
| 3. | +03:00 | 2-3 Contouring to the pond and crossing under it, I then ran up the grassy ridge to the crest. A little left, then right, I dropped down on the spur. Making a contour across the reentrant and crossing the trail, I moved along but probably ducked under the control. At the catching next reentrant, I dropped down and turned around. At a clearing, I saw on the map that I was looking for a clearing with a tree. Looking up, I saw a tree but not the control. After paying my penalty by climbing, I saw the tree was the one I was looking for. | |||||
| 4. | +01:30 | 3-4 Contouring around the first reentrant on cow paths, I plan to use the field to come down the spur. As the field gets to be patchy trees, I think I'm too low so I go up some. Seeing others, I go further north and drop down again eventually and fotunately finding it. | |||||
| 5. | 4-5 Contouring to the first reentrant, I climbed some, then contoured again pass the second. Reading the field I saw it going straight down the hill. I dropped with it and got to the control just after an older M50(?) does. | ||||||
| 6. | 5-6 The older man is off before me but has chosen my path toward the trail junction. We hit it cleanly and I passed the older man while going up the hill. After shooting the saddle, I rough compassed and used the edge of the field to spike it. | ||||||
| 7. | 6-7 As I was leaving, the older man was panting and punching right behind me. Feeling energized by spiking 6, I contoured across on a cow path and spiked 7. | ||||||
| 8. | 7-8 Leaving 7, I saw some people ahead and ran toward them, knowing the road was a catching feature. I passed one guy and hit the road higher than I should have. Going left and down to the intersection, I thought about using the paved road and the bend on it to attack from. Instead, I went right perhaps making a mistake from my plan. I realized, that I was on the high road almost right away but decided to go ahead anyway. I doubted my route on the climb but along the way I saw there was hardly any difference. Leaving from the bend, I spiked 8. | ||||||
| 9. | +04:00 | 8-9 After a drink, I saw there was a climb whichever way I went. I went straight over the first ridge, then contoured somewhat down to the reentrant. After crossing the stream, I compassed into a deep ditch and passed an older woman w/a Cisco shirt who claimed this climb was killing her. I climbed out on the left side of the ditch and went up sucking wind. As it became more shallow, I saw others going right and so I crossed to the right. Seeing a control ahead, it took forever to get there. It was the wrong one-damn! In a field now, I went left a bit. As a fence loomed ahead, I turned around but stayed higher. Eventually I dropped back to the control that I checked earlier, just to make sure (I've made this type of error earlier this fall/summer). Yup. It was the wrong one. I decided I could be too low even though it looked like I was near the top. It turned out that I was not high enough and saw the lone tree just as another person was running away. | |||||
| 10. | 9-10 Not having had enough climbing excitement, I climbed higher to use the field edge. Dropping down appropriately, I spiked it but was slow due to route choice. | ||||||
| 11. | 10-11 Seeing an opportunity for more climbing, I S-curved over the first ridge, saw the field I was looking for across the reentrant, and then went across/down to the reentrant. A younger man was crossing more directly and lower but probably because I had less climb, I got there ahead of him. I spiked the control. | ||||||
| 12. | 11-12 This one must of had a sign advertising a last chance for a big climb. Why else would I have taken the direct route? My legs were burning so I paused to check both trails that I crossed and struggled-on. It was rough, dried-mud ground in the grassy field. I S-curved down to the reentrant, hopped the deep ditch and hit the control. Peggy later told me she went around and beat me on this leg. | ||||||
| 13. | +01:00 | 12-13 I felt nervous anticipation of completion and had difficulty reading as I bounded down the hill toward the GO control. I mistakenly looked at the finish circle on the map thinking it was #13. I did see this circle was just past a trail intersection so I started looking for one on my right. In the clearing, there was no clear road intersection, but I did see that there was a control at a tree up the hill. I ran up to inspect it since it was another opportunity to run uphill and found it was the wrong one. Reading the map more carefully now, I bounded down, and followed the road on the dog-leg contour to the GO control. | |||||
| F. | 13-Finish Made it look good at least! Ran hard. |
Total Time Lost - 00:09:50