Race Evaluation
COK Blue Ridge Challenge, Day 1: Blue
Tundra/Desert
| 1. | The route will be here. | ||||||
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Did not like map +01:35 | I climbed a bit too high while going sort of straight. When I crossed the ditch, I looked down the slope and could not see the control in it; the flag was much lower than mapped. Also, the ditch was not on the spur line, but came up earlier. So, I crossed the ditch and moved on. It quickly became clear that there were no more ditches, so I turned around. As I got back to the ditch, I had to descend another 1.5 contours to the control. | |||||
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| 7. | I investigated the two hilltops with flags on them before converging upon my hillside. The map appeared severely distorted, I was not that far off the straight line but my route shows otherwise. | ||||||
| 8. | As I cut from the N–S trail NW into the overgrown valley, another distortion became apparent. I was going due NW but ended up at the junction of the streams in the green. I turned right to compensate, and it only took a few short moments to travel the whole length of that E–W segment of the creek to just below the two rootstocks. | ||||||
| 9. | I contoured. There were many things going on on the S-facing hillside; I don't think the mapper ever paid any respect to it. I nailed the control. The contours upon approach were no better than USGS, and the green was really sketchy. | ||||||
| 10. | I went down the spur just E of the obvious N–S trail, avoiding any zigzags. It was fine. The crossing of the dark green was also relatively painless. What was painful was the medium green, coming to the control from the N. And, there was no control feature, the flag was 2 contours too low, and in the wrong relation to the saddle mapped NW of it (the flag was more S than ESE). I nailed it, though, by keeping my eyes open and head, spinning. | ||||||
| 11. | I used the now-distinct trail. | ||||||
| 12. |
Bad route choice +01:10 | I went all the way around, through the dark green, then Sprint Control 4, then up the trail. As I was coming onto Lake Imaging Road from the trail, there was a barrier horse across the trail, along with some streamer, blocking passage. I had picked up so much speed that I knocked the horse out, disassembling it into three pieces. Actually when I ran into it, I was thinking it was another piece of yellow streamer, and I was trying to sneak underneath it. But pieces of wood came raining on my head instead. I threw the large piece into the woods, and made a note to make a trip/second training session back to put the horse together. It was curious that it was much faster to exit Control 11 back E, and to take the "indistinct" tral that now is a drivable road through the dark green; I could see it rejoining the trail just W of the trail bend. I know that Mr. Chocolate took the same route, so this route was not the best one. Eddie's times on #10 and #12 were unachievable, though, by anyone with lesser laurel penetration ability, so I think I only lost about a minute (see Tom's time), and saved myself some neurons and skin cells by virtue of this panic-like laurel avoidance. | |||||
| 13. | A trail route. Felt fine, pushed a bit. Jennifer Knowles was on my back. | ||||||
| 14. | I went straight. Very slow dark green. It was probably better to go well around on trails, through the clearing 250 m ENE of Control 14. | ||||||
| 15. | As I ran through that clearing, I saw Swampfox (or was it 'Swampfox?) cooling down. Since all Blue people started sort of together, with 2-minute intervals, with me being last, I realized that Mikell's time could not have been as good relative to mine as it was at Wolf's Den. | ||||||
| 16. | Just after I crossed the major trail, I saw Mata going towards the finish. He had started 2 minutes ahead of me, so he was beating me but not by much. As I came into the control, Randy was just leaving it, looking as if he was working very hard up the hill. | ||||||
| 17. | I ran after Randy but could not see him. | ||||||
| 18. | I took a note of the time at the point I had seen Mats, and I was there about 5:20 later, so I was losing 3:20 to him. I hurried to the finish. | ||||||
| F. | But Randy came in after me, so he must have had significant problems with #17. |
Total Time Lost - 00:02:45