Race Evaluation
Colorado 5-Day: Day 2: Red
Nadim
| 1. |
Bad route choice Did not follow plan Took a chance Confused parallel features Bad distance judgement Could not relocate Tired Frustrated +24:30 | Before the start, I chatted with Mark Dominie about all the passing back and forth yesterday. Peggy and Peter Gagarin started 6 and 4 minutes ahead. Joe Brautigam and Mark started 2 and 4 minutes behind. I watched people start and persumed the route would be running across the mountainside while crossing many reentrants and thought to take the road. As I watched others, I saw them heading straight and did the same. Peter actually looke to head high so I did. I counted reentrants but there were more higher up so I probably pulled-up short. I went down and saw control 308 but couldn't tell which feature it was on. At the bottom, a distinct almost perpendicular reentrant with rocks and a control seemed distinct enough to relocate from but it didn't work. I went over one reentrant and came down, still not finding it. I kept coming back to the perpendicular reentrant but couldn't get to the control from there. I found several other controls including G6. I saw Joe Brautigam going through where I'd already been and wasn't sure if he had already gotten it or was going to #2. I saw Mark Dominie too, higher than Joe. I kept my search pattern coming to the perpendicular reentrant at least 4 times. I soon decided to go up to the road passing others I knew. I came out in a field about 250m from the start and made sure of my location by reentrants and rocks. Going down carefully, I passed G6 and soon came to my control. | |||||
| 2. | I raced off and read reentrants well. Soon Fritz Meninger was in sight to my right. At the bottom of a reentrant junction I cut left and up. Fritz yelled from behind that this was correct and I spiked it. | ||||||
| 3. | I raced out, trying to open a gap between myself and Fritz. Crossing the saddle and a reentrant, I saw the control 100m off. | ||||||
| 4. | Down to the road, I trudged along, already feeling tired from all the hill climbing at #1. I crossed the closed gate since it wasn't marked out of bounds. I cut up at another gate in the fence, having to climb over because it too was locked. I helped an older foreign orienteer over too and went up on bearing to spike the control--albeit slowly. | ||||||
| 5. | Leaving, I could see Fritz approaching having not taken the road. I trudged up the field to the right then followed a reentrant up to the knoll and road. I could see Fritz taking a straighter route. He seemed to gain on me but was lower down. I crossed the ridge and dropped right to the control tyring to get in and out fast before Fritz could see me. | ||||||
| 6. | +02:00 | 5-6 Down through the field, I crossed the next stream and climbed over the hill to the flatter ground. I didn't see the trail option to the north. I crossed the flatter contours to the SE knoll with the trail on the west side of it. As I dropped down, I must not have set a good bearing. I took the large reentrant south of the control up to some rocks. When I didn't see it, I realized what I'd done and headed due north down to the control. Some others were headed the other way. | |||||
| 7. | +03:00 | 6-7 Upthe way I came, I crossed the road below the knoll and began crossing reentrants. I went higher/West to reduce climb and counted. I was reasonable sure I hit the right reentrant but I forgot I had gone higher/west earlier. I saw some rocks which I thought might be the ones below the control so I headed west, up the reentrant to and beyond them to where the reentrant ran out. Confidence was low. I thought to climb to the road to get a solid attack point rather than risk the lenghthy error of #1 but decided that I was in the correct reentrant and would risk a run down it. I was correct. | |||||
| 8. | 7-8 I started up the reentrant and then out on a spur to the road junction. I could see Fritz's bright O-suit ahead like a beacon but lost sight again--I was ready to think I wouldn't catch him before the end. I cut right at the road and ran through the first split before dropping down. I saw Fritz again and this time, I saw him leave the correct spur and cut right toward other orienteers. I was encouraged a little by the chance to finish ahead of him after all and ran faster down the spur to spike the control. | ||||||
| 9. | 8-9 The ups and downs looked slow and risky. I headed SW to the rough open, climbing to cross it. As I left the open, I could hear Ross Smith coming-up from behind or another route. I pushed on, contouring around a knoll and some spurs trying to hold him off. Suddenly, it seemed like I could read the map and run again. Near the end I passed others including Barb Dominie who from a distance I thought to be Mark because of the same O-suit color. A quick read pinpointed the direction to look in and I saw the pit across a reentrant junction. I hustled to keep ahead of Ross and made it. It was strange why I could run with confidence w/Ross behind me but couldn't earlier. I think his presence made me feel reasured and led to success breeding success. | ||||||
| F. | 9-10. Up, up, I was tired and almost jogged but decided to keep trying to hold off Ross who I could hear coming. I succeeded by a small margin. |
Total Time Lost - 00:29:30