Race Evaluation
Falcon Fundy O-Fest: Relay Course 3
jfredrickson
| 1. | Number 1 was just a fun sprint up the amphitheater stairs and across the fields to the trail head at the back of the golf club. | ||||||
| 2. | I considered both left and right routes as I was running to number 1. The beginning of the golf course was marked as out of bounds on the left route, and I was sure if I would be able to run around that without risking going through some of it, or if we were even allowed to run around it, so I decided to focus on going right. There wasn't much point in cutting off big trail bend, so I just ran it the whole way. As I was going uphill on the far side of the stream I decided that I didn't want to run all the way around, so I decided to cut through the green slash field. It turned out to be alright, and I spiked the control. | ||||||
| 3. | +00:40 | Again, I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be on the golf course or not, so I decided to cut up to the trail on the right. I never seemed to hit it though, and ended up in the rough open between the golf course and the trail. The rough open was pretty green and nasty though, so I couldn't help cutting out to the golf course and down and around to the stream. I ran the stream up to the trail, and then realized that I wasn't sure what I was looking for. I double checked my map and realized it was a cliff, so I looked up to find a cliff and saw the control at the end of the trail in front of me. I guess I lost about 30-45 seconds with my sluggish route. It would have definitely been faster to just run the edge of the golf course, but I think we were supposed to avoid it. Fortunately it was empty since it was pouring rain. | |||||
| 4. | The cut up the hill through the green was pretty tough, and I had to try to crawl along a fallen tree at one point as the pine trees on either side of it were impenetrable. I finally cut out to the trail and ran it up to the bend where the line hit it. From there I compassed along the left side of the line and into the flat open area. I saw a moose there that slowly jauntered away from me. Then I just cut down towards the hill side and into the big depression with the control. I felt pretty good about spiking this control, but I still lost time with my sloppy route. It would have definitely been faster to cut out more to the right from the last control to avoid the heavier green, but I do think that my attackpoint from the trail worked nicely, so it was a pretty successful leg. | ||||||
| 5. | +03:00 | Number 5 was my big disaster for the day. I was feeling pretty confident up to this point, and I guess I just wasn't in the right mode after all, and it definitely hit me on this control. I know that I stayed too high coming down the hill to the stream out of 4, but I didn't correct enough after I crossed the stream, and ended up in the thick green. From there I just focused on fighting through it up the hill and didn't notice that I was going way too far left. When I finally came out to the earth bank on the north-western side of the control I immediately picked it up as the on south-west of the control that I had been planning on hitting. My lack of contact with the map during my fight through the green caused me to not notice my mistake, and so I started running along the vegetation boundary just above this earth bank. I kept looking for a place to cut in thinking that the field was just on the other side, and when I finally did fight through the wall of green I realized something must be wrong because it was just thick forest on the other side. I finally realized that I was at the northern earth bank, and from there it was an easy shot down to the field and into the control. I guess I just have to be more careful about putting my head down to fight through the green because you can easily lose track of your sense of direction and end up in places you didn't expect. That leaves you wide open for parallel errors like this. | |||||
| 6. | The trail to 6 was quite overgrown, so it made it hard to keep track of exactly how far you had gone. Fortunately the erosion gully on the left side of the trail was quite obvious and gave me a good place to leave the trail from. The green area just below 6 was completely flooded, but I took it carefully and spiked the control. | ||||||
| 7. | 7 was just a blast down the hill to the stream and then some careful jumping along the rocks down the roaring stream to the control. | ||||||
| 8. | +00:15 | I cut up the hill to the top of the ridge, but the right side looked so steep and far down that I wasn't sure I was right. I ran along it a little ways hoping it would look a little better farther along, but it still looked wrong so I decided to start cutting down the hill to make sure I didn't miss the control. I ended up seeing it below me as I was running along the side of the ridge. I think that ridge was missing some contours though as it was definitely more than 2 contours down to the control. | |||||
| 9. | +00:15 | I took a straight compass to 9 and came to the edge of the steep reentrant, and thought I saw the control down in there. It turned out to be a person, so I double-checked my map to make sure was correct before diving down in. It turned out the person was coming out of the control and I spiked it right on. | |||||
| 10. | I ran down to the tennis court and ran around it to the long hill along the field. I ran up and over the long side of that hill using it as a linear feature into the control. I am pretty sure the control was hung on the first cairn though, instead of the second, but I hit it right on so it wasn't a problem for me. | ||||||
| 11. | Just a sprint across the field to the tip of the tree line. | ||||||
| 12. | Down and around the forest line to the trail. | ||||||
| F. | Just a fast sprint up the trail to the finish. |
Total Time Lost - 00:04:10