Walking warm up/down 6:04 [3] 0.24 mi (25:18 / mi) +22m 19:36 / mi
shoes: 2017 Inov8 ArcticClaw 300
To start of the Billygoat
Orienteering race (Pygmy) 1:43:24 [4] 7.79 km (13:17 / km) +234m 11:33 / km
spiked:10/10c shoes: 2017 Inov8 ArcticClaw 300
39th Billygoat, 4th? Pygmy
Held at Pound Ridge Reservation, home of the 1997 BG (my 2nd; I have the shirt). Temps stayed steady in the low-mid 50s, not windy, no rain until after all was cleaned up after the race. Congrats to the winners, Jordan Laughlin and Alex Jospe! And special thanks to Rick DeWitt (head goat) and his team of helpers from WCOC and HVO. 1:10000, 5m contours
This year's version of the shortened Billygoat race, the Pygmy, was 7.5 km with 290m of climb...perhaps calculated on the full course of 11 controls. But we (like the BGers) were allowed to skip a control.
Pygmy course was this subset of BG controls:
1-2-3-6-7-9-11-12-13-15-25
Skipping the first control was a possibility, but not one I really considered even though it included a 12-contour climb because legs were still fresh and I hadn't had the opportunity to look for other options. So I plugged on up the hill far enough behind Anne Billman and others to have to navigate on my own once I hit the hilltop, but it was an easy find. Some controls were set up so you could see competing ahead/behind you (sometimes called a Saeger loop for a course-setting technique Jeff has used), and I took the opportunity on 2 to swing close to 3 to see the stream of folks (okay, maybe 5 or so by that time) coming from 2 for an easy approach.
Then back to 3 and trail run most of the way to 4 (BG #6). From 3 the BGers were headed elsewhere and I didn't see any again until Ed Despard coming into 5 (BG #7) (and later, another batch near the 7-8-9 loop on my course, 11-12-13 on thr BG). I never saw the (male) leaders, though I did see Alex J on the second Saeger loop.
On the way to 5 I considered skipping 6 to save a bit of distance but it was an easy control with not too much climb so I decided on 10 (BG #15), a long leg cutting across the map, which allowed a fairly flat trail run a large part of the way. I'm happy with my decision, and my legs are happy I didn't attempt the longer version with 13.3 SL distance and almost 500m of climb.