Topo the Mountain, Solo Male
Woke up at 4 am, met up with W4J, and hopped in the car. Made really good time, so we arrived right at 9 and had an hour to prep before getting maps.
Planned a CCW loop, realized Syd had planned the same exact route, so reconsidered. Did the same loop CW, which had the added bonus of hitting 2 of the bonus controls earlier to get them on the map. First bonus was way far away, so ended up rerouting mid route to hit the 3rd bonus earlier than planned to get it on the map also.
It was 6F at the start, and maybe warmed into the high teens by 3 pm. ~2 inches of crunchy snow on the ground. Very chilly out, but i was surprisingly comfortable in my clothing choice: tights + zipoffs, ankle gaiters, smartwool socks, speedcross, light long sleeve, heavy long sleev, rain coat, light gloves, light hat.
Started off well, hiting the high density loop without any issues, just a decent amount of climb. 12, 16 (got D), 15. Around this point i was still with 2 other groups, and 2 BIG dogs started following us. at 13 I made a point to go straight up a hill to lose the dogs and the people. Got B. Also realized my camelback hose had frozen despite trying to keep it clear. Rearranged my pack under my jacket and tucked hand warmers under the hose, to no avail. Guess the next 3 hours were going to be waterless... 10, 14, 11, B, 8. Minor parallel error at 11 was quickly corrected. Nav was otherwise good, speed was good, I was happy.
Moved on to the top part of the course and I was starting to slow down. Hit 6 to get the bonus and went CCW instead of CW. Got D. 4 through me off because the map and clue didnt match, and stupidly i went with the clue instead of the map. 3, 2, pretty dumb parallel error. 1, got A, yuck, but still doing good on time so headed to it after getting 5. This is where I started to really decline. I was super dehydrated and could not think straight from A to 7. I was did everything in my power to stay in contact with the map, which worked, as far as knowing where I was, but I couldnt bring myself to take the more efficient high route and just beelined it. Ultimately a lot more climb, which really drained me. Got pretty confused at one point, but figured it out. I still had plenty of time to go for the last bonus, B, back near where I had started, but i was just drained and dehydrated so i made the decision to call it quits early. If I had had water throughout I think I would have been fine and gone for it.
Finished 5th solo, 8th overall. Probably wouldnt have changed placement to get B, as 3rd was back 20 minutes after me, and I think it would have taken me longer than that.
http://imgur.com/a/afyBV