Race Evaluation
US Individual Championships (Sprint/Middle/Long/Trail): Middle - Brown
DWildfogel
| 1. | +00:05 | Took a few steps down the road before realizing I needed to go right. Proceeded slowly as I generally do at the beginning, had no trouble finding the control. | |||||
| 2. | +01:00 | Across the bare rock to the far end, started through the "light" green, but got so tangled up in vines, I backed out to the bare rock, went uphill a bit and then along upper edge of green. Crossed creek, saw lots of rocks, wondered why I didn't see them on the map (wonder still: they're there!), expected to see big trail - but nothing (like yesterday, leaving #8). Now I really didn't know what to do. Followed a bearing, even though I wasn't sure of my location. Recognized when the hill ended and the broad reentrant started, turned left, saw some rootstocks in the pattern of the ones S of the control, and hit the control - amazing, because I was worried that I was totally lost. | |||||
| 3. | +01:00 | E along edge of fight, came to where I thought the cliffs should meet the earth bank (WRONG: not cliffs, but indistinct trail), but no cliffs. Crossed next reentrant, came to boulders, started searching boulders down the reentrant, THEN checked map and saw the boulder I wanted was up on the hillside, went up and got it. Yeesh, where's my focus?? | |||||
| 4. | +06:00 | Up the W side of the bare rock, hoped to see trail but didn't (me and this map aren't getting along), kept on bearing, got to what seemed like the top of the hill (now I see the top contour is a form line, so I probably wasn't at the top), trying to keep all the rocks on my left. But no control. Probably went too far N, searched too far N, went up and back a few times, but never far enough S. Saw a few runners S of me heading down hill, but didn't realize until later that they were Blue runners leaving the control I was looking for. Not thinking of anything else I could do, finally went further S and realized that there were rocks further E obscured by vegetation, found the control only 30m away. Ugh. | |||||
| 5. | +00:40 | Past first bare rock, crossed the trail without seeing it (fourth time today already!!), pushed a bit right by vegetation, found myself on right side of reentrant with rootstock across the way, so was able to relocate and follow bearing to control (which sure seemed to be buried in unmapped fight). | |||||
| 6. | +00:10 | Bearing, spot control off to my left. Once again (though I haven't been mentioning it) caught in vines several times. By now my arms have been torn to shreds. | |||||
| 7. | +03:00 | Follow bearing, didn't bother to identify individual boulders (trying to use yesterday's strategy, but it hasn't been working - this is very different terrain and I never adjusted). Once again, must've crossed trail without seeing it! Down reentrant, looked behind a few boulders, started thinking I wasn't in a reentrant after all (but should have realized I needed to be at S-most rocks - where's my focus?) so went N to next reentrant, randomly looking behind rocks, until I decided I must be way too far N; worked my way back along the downhill edge of the bouldered area until I saw the flag uphill. | |||||
| 8. | Easy control (I came into the ditch 25m below the flag), but along the way my hand got caught in some branches as I was running, and the yanking caused excruciating pain in my left shoulder. This isn't my day. | ||||||
| 9. | +01:00 | Up reentrant, cross spur to bare rock at top of next reentrant. Mugginess is getting to me now. See beginning of trail spur. Down hill, hoping to see boulders, but don't. Instead, spot bare rock ahead. Once there, see two one foot high rocks, wonder if they're the boulders on the map (they WERE!), take a chance and take a bearing from there and soon see the control. | |||||
| 10. | +00:30 | More vines! Felt like I got shredded 10 times every leg. went on bearing to the hunters stand, and just as my pace count ran out, there it was - my best navigating of the day, though my route must've cost me. Bearing from there, though spotted control surprisingly far off to my left. | |||||
| 11. | +01:30 | A little left of straight to minimize fight. come to ditch, turn right on to spur, see rocks - no control. Look at map for a bit and realize i must be at rock cluster up the spur, so go down and spot control. | |||||
| 12. | My best leg of the day - maybe I finally learned something! Blasted to the right of straight to avoid fight; passed boulders on my right; when I saw ditch ahead, turned left and nailed the control. | ||||||
| 13. | +00:15 | Ran hard to road, but then was puzzled: seemed to be some vegetation in the clearing, but there was none on the map. Slowed a bit, but when I was directly N of the road, I saw the bag to the S. | |||||
| F. | I suppose I could invoke a lot of excuses for today: a third straight poor night's sleep, mugginess, getting torn to shreds by vines, not much emotion left after first two races, but the bottom line is that my focus wasn't there. I never really picked my way carefully, which could have enabled me to avoid vines and pick out the many available features. Charlie walked all the way and beat me! |
Total Time Lost - 00:15:10