Race Evaluation
CNYO/EMPO Halloween Howl Day 2: Red
jjcote
| 1. | Stayed on the trail about as long as possible. | ||||||
| 2. | Trails left of the line, past the water tank, cutting into the woods at the trail bend to run the top of the slope. | ||||||
| 3. | Angled downhill, crossed the big gully, then a few steps up on a trail to zig and zag on trails to the big marsh. Ran the trail along the edge until I was even with the island, then headed up. Got to the cliffs one step lower than the control, and saw Alar looking around -- he had started two minutes before me. Went directly to the control, but not before stepping in a tiger trap: my foot abruptly vanished into a narrow limestone fissure and stopped when it got the the knee. That hurt like hell, and I uttered some very loud profanities as I limped toward the control. The pain was bad enough that I didn't know if I'd be able to continue. | ||||||
| 4. | Shuffling along, the knee gradually loosened up, though there was substantial swelling later on and a day later I'm definitely limping. Just went on autopilot to the boulder, wathcing my step, and getting passed by Alar near the end. | ||||||
| 5. | Downhill, acros the top of the gully, and followed it down, arriving with Alar. | ||||||
| 6. | Alar took off down the hill and across the road faster, and I slowed down when I hit more limestone on the other side. Still had him in sight when he hooked around below the cliff, and there was a cadet following him out. | ||||||
| 7. | A bit left to avoid the worst of the gully, passing the cadet at that point, and spotting Alar as he was leaving the control. | ||||||
| 8. | This leg looked ugly, lots of up and down on the straight line. Inadvertently went out a bit to the left, saw a building, and decided that at that point I might as well take the road. Cut the corner through white woods (more ugly limestone), and hit the long road straightaway, where I was surprised to not see Alar ahead. Cut in smoothly through the open area, arriving just before Alar, who asked, "Did you take the road?". The cadet was right behind me. | ||||||
| 9. | Up the right side of the reentrant, through the open area, across the road, through the picnic area, and up the trail to the marsh. My plan was to cross the indistinct marsh to the island, but it looked way too thick. Alar and the cadet were right behind me, and the cadet just scooted up the trail to the right to go around the end of the marsh. Alar cut off to go through the heart of it, and I went to the narrowest part, whcih was open and really not bad. Slow climbing up the cliffs, and Alar topped out right next to me. We head toward the cotnrol no problem, and got there at the same time as the cadet, who had taken trails all the way around. | ||||||
| 10. | Alar was somewhat too far to the left, and I started out that way, but corrected and got to the trail at the clearing. The cadet was right with me, but left the trail too early and I never saw him again. Alar caught up just after the road crossing, and we were together going up the hillside, passing a control in a reentrant that wasn't ours, then soon afterwards seeing our spur up ahead. | ||||||
| 11. | Alar stayed higher, I dropped down a little to get onto the small terrace, and I picked up some deer trails that were going my way. Stayed pretty close to the line, and spiked the control, which had a couple of people passing through. Wasn't positive that it was the right place (kind of looked like it was on a rootstock at first), but teh code matched. | ||||||
| 12. | Alar and I barreled down the hill, but he got a bit too far left and was snagged by the raspberries to the tune of two minutes -- I never saw him again. The field looked nasty, so I went as far as I could in the white before popping out, and I found a decent line through the weeds. Crossed the road, and found a trail bend to attack from. This control looked tricky, so I took it carefully, checking off the stone ground halfway, and carefully looking at the contours so that I knew what to expect. | ||||||
| 13. |
Bad compass work +00:45 | Paying more attention to the nasty footing than to my compass, I drifted right, which wasn't so bad because I got to wave hello to Nancy. Came down some cliffs, and had multiple trails in front of me, making it easy to tell where I was. Turned left and followed the edge of the marsh in. | |||||
| 14. | Decided that the far side of the marsh looked batter, so I crossed over, realizing halfway that there was a big stream to cross. It was clear water, so I jumped in, hoping that it was only thigh-deep, and not a soft bottom that would sink me to my waist. No problem. Along the edge to the trail, up to the junction, and an easy attack. | ||||||
| 15. |
Did not plan ahead Read map too late Bad compass work +00:20 | Shortest leg of the course, and the only control I had been to before (in 1993), so of course it was my biggest error, though only a few seconds. Just a little low/right, and I stopped at the right distance and looked up to my left to see the flag. Should have noticed from the map that I needed to climb a little. | |||||
| 16. | Just blasted straight on rough compass, figuring out halfway there that I could easily follow the top of the slope to the flag. | ||||||
| 17. | Down the slope at the first big reentrant, then ran vaguely down the hill, looking for the big gully on my left. Crossed after the buildings, then took the cleanest line I could see to the road, and ran along the shoulder to the crossing. | ||||||
| 18. | Through the field to a convenient corner, then in on compass to a nice crossing of the green, and up the hill. Planned to look for the stone wall to lead me in, but I was a bit too far to the right, and went essentially straight to the marsh. | ||||||
| 19. | Kept the long marsh in sight on my left and handrailed in until I came to the end of the big spur. | ||||||
| 20. | Diagonally down the hill, and crossed the green when I saw a convenient break. Head in the general direction from there and spotted the control from some distance, getting there ahead of a cadet coming in from my left. | ||||||
| 21. | The cadet had come from the field and knew a good line out, but I took a different route that was closer to the line when we hit the field. He was moving fast, but I got there a step ahead. | ||||||
| F. | Nice to have someone in the chute with you to keep the pressure on for a good sprint. |
Total Time Lost - 00:01:05