Skiing race (Ski-O) 1:27:05 [3] *** 10.5 km (8:18 / km)
spiked:7/8c slept:6.0
ROC Ski-O at Mendon Ponds.
Unfortunately the club is relegated to start at Hopkins Point, away from the many kilometers of groomed trails, so the first part of the course sucked (that was the consensus of Nate and me, when we met at the 2nd control).
I had a 2 minute head-start on Nate, but got all tangled up going around the end of the plowed section of road, and he was very close to me at the first control, and caught me climbing out of the valley. I thought the road would be skateable, so I was looking forward to it, but it most places it was too chewed up and thick to skate. I took the last trail before the end of the road, to avoid some uo-and-down, and then got to the downhill, which had death written all over it, so I took off the skis and ran down, and sort of ran up the other side. I got to the meadow and saw the flag and 2 options: ski up and then down to the left, like Sue K, or down and then up to the right, like Nate. I chose option 3 and ran straight to the control, getting there a second after Nate.
Leaving C2, I ran up the hill and caught Nate, then lost him when I put my skis on. Came down the hill nicely into the woods, and was ready to make the left turn at the bottom, when I noticed a family of 4 was coming at me, clogging up the tracks, so I had to go off-road momentarily, instead of making the left. I saw the flag up the hill, so took the skis off and climbed.
I left the skis off leaving C3 and sort of contoured around (someone had skied that way) to the low trail and skied that around the end of the ridge/spur. When I hit the pond-side trail, I mistakenly went right, thinking I saw the narrow land bridge and had to turn around after a minute+. But at least this part was fun skiing.
I had to stop and read the map on the way to C5, as the trails looked a bit different than I imagined and I did not want to wind up back at the land bridge.
Going to C6, I followed the groomed trail (finally passing Sue K) to where it crosses the road, and was planning on continuing on, but once across, I decided double-poling near the road to the parking lot area would work. I made the left at the parking lot, to take the better looking trails to the flag. Hit the nice straightaway, and was flying, when I caught up to a couple of 80? year old women. There were two sets of tracks, but there was a widely-spaced group of about six skiers coming the other way (slowly), just when I wanted to cut over, so I had to come to a complete stop. The old ladies were going so slow that I actually had to aggressively "pole backwards" to keep from running into them.
I had to remove the skis after C6 to get up the hill, put them back on at the top and flew down the hill to the parking lot, braking just in the nick of time to avoid hitting the wooden fence, and popped the skis off again to run down the drive and across the road for some double-poling, working pretty hard because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I saw William going the other way as I approached C7. He looked as uncoordinated as I feel during the brief time I saw him.
On the way to C8, I was able to skate off and on, as the trail was decent in some places and chewed up in others. I passed a couple when I made the left just before the hill with the lodge and then had to go uphill and was afraid they were going to catch me (not even close, as it turned out). Hit C8 and turned around, zipping down the hill - the right option seemed too hilly for my taste and momentum, so I went left, hitting the brakes to stop at the Go control, only it wasn't really the Go control, just some random control, so Rick W caught me. When I hit the uphill, I took off the skis and ran in, getting back past Rick.
So, I can say, overall, I did not hate this ski-o, but leaving C3, I was ready to hang it up, as the first part was no fun at all. The time on the groomed trails was enjoyable, but it wasn't really "orienteering" in my book (the extra look at the map going to C5 notwithstanding). Neither Nate nor I thought to bring a compass to the meet and it would not have helped at all, if we had.
I guess we will NOT be going to CNYO next weekend. The BREIA web site says "No Skate Skiing (Except On Sunfield Trail At Jackson Hill)". Oh well.