Race Evaluation
Possum Trot Weekend: Possum Trot
steveng
| 1. | Around the north side of the shelter, and SW to the road. Surprised to be alone; it looked like everyone else was heading more directly to the road. Had a good lead when I came out to the road. Patrick was closing the gap by the end of the field. Ran into the fence just before the control, getting two large rips in my pants and a 4 inch long cut on my leg (I think, only noticed one rip at the time so I can't be sure that the cut and other rip didn't come elsewhere). Freed myself in time to be first at the control. | ||||||
| 2. | Along the top of the hill and down the re-entrant. Expected Patrick to go by but I stayed ahead. | ||||||
| 3. | Only saw Mikell and Darius approaching #2 as I left. Thought a bunch of others must have skipped #2, but nobody did so they must have been just a little further back. Not entirely sure what my plan was for this leg (think I would have followed the trail past the valley off the arm of the lake and headed up the broad white spur), but Patrick passed me early in the leg and cut down to valley near the lake (which was actually open land, not forest) and then stayed on the trail past the valley, so I stuck with him. Trailed a bit towards the end but cut up to the clearing sooner and was right behind at the control. | ||||||
| 4. | Straight, behind Patrick. | ||||||
| 5. | Patrick hit the road a little further north than necessary, and I did the same. Saw Mikell coming into #4 as I left, and I think he gained a bit on us (or me at least) by taking a more direct route across the field coming out of #4. | ||||||
| 6. | Patrick had a bit of a gap again at #5, but I seemed to have caught up a bit when we reached the road. Saw Patrick cut fairly directly into the rough open ahead and I angled in towards where he was headed, but he was a bit south of the control so I probably should have stayed in the open land a bit longer. | ||||||
| 7. | Was aiming to cross the spur a bit down from the top, until I realized that would add a fair bit of distance. Went more directly across the top instead. | ||||||
| 8. | Thought I would head NW down the slope to the path, but Patrick went along the hillside and it was pretty open, so I took that route instead. Hit the path just before the stream crossing and followed it around to the control. Didn't see Mikell behind, not sure if he was just a bit further back at that point or if he took the more westerly route. | ||||||
| 9. | By the west side of the little pond and the east side of the fence. | ||||||
| 10. | Across the road and up the middle trail leading north. Patrick was barely within sight, and seemed to stay on the trail too long as it turned more towards the east. I stayed on the trail for a bit longer than necessary as a result. Headed down to the valley at about the same time as Patrick, but he was a bit further east. Wasn't sure exactly where I was, but figured I would be close enough to the control to see it. Was headed a few metres too far east but saw the control before reaching the bottom of the valley. Patrick got there just before me and Mikell had caught up with us. | ||||||
| 11. | +00:10 | A bit slow going up the hill while taking off my gloves and stuffing them in a pocket, and Mikell passed me. We all missed a bit to the south. I got there first. | |||||
| 12. | Patrick got back in the lead heading up to the field. | ||||||
| 13. | By the pond and around the NW side of the green. Struggled a bit heading up the hill. Mikell passed me and Patrick was getting a bit far ahead. Was a bit confused by the openness of the vegetation past the pond. | ||||||
| 14. | +00:10 | Patrick was pretty much out of sight. I think all of us hit the creek too far north. I was quite confused when I hit the creek, for some reason. Should have been obvious that I was too far north, especially since I could see Patrick heading north out of the control and Mikell heading south to it. | |||||
| 15. | Skip. | ||||||
| 16. | +00:15 | Coming out of #14, I noticed that my punch card was only hanging on by one pin. Had lost the other pin so I slowed down to get another one out of my pocket and secure my punch card to my shirt. Saw no sign of Mikell or Patrick when I reached the powerline, so I stuck with my plan of skipping #15. Had I still been close to Mikell, I probably would have gone with him to #15. Followed the powerline to the bend, crossed the stream on the trail west of the powerline, and ran along the south side of the stream to the gully. | |||||
| 17. | +00:15 | North of out #16 and to the large trail. Passed by Mikell, who was heading from 15 to 16, just before the junction by the pond. Tried to pick up the cut line that went close to the control, but didn't see it. Headed down from the large trail, trying to judge distance by the river bend. Hesitated a bit in the cliffs to the south before heading up to the boulders (the cliffs and boulders weren't distinctly different). | |||||
| 18. | Down to the field. Was a bit hesitant approaching the control because blood on my map case obscured some of the detail. | ||||||
| 19. | Not feeling great and walked pretty much all of the hill from the first trail up to the fence. Was a bit sluggish at the top but felt better shortly. | ||||||
| 20. | South through the forest to the field. Was a bit confused by the vegetation boundary and almost overran the control. | ||||||
| 21. | West and a bit south across the first re-entrant and across the second re-entrant below the pond. | ||||||
| 22. | Down the creek for a bit to go around the first spur, and up the hill to the field. Dropped down into the forest a bit west of the control to be sure I didn't miss it. | ||||||
| 23. | South out of #22 and along the field edge for a bit. Saw Patrick heading across the field to #22. Descended into the forest, at a bit more of an angle than intended. Crossed the spur between the two creeks near the bottom. Probably should have stayed left of the line to avoid dropping too low in the re-entrants. | ||||||
| 24. | Straight. Counted on seeing the control if I was a bit off. Spotted the control ahead around when I crossed the creek. | ||||||
| 25. | Skip. | ||||||
| 26. | +02:00 | Started to head towards #25, but figured that if it were more than 30 m or so down, I might be better off skipping it (rather than #33). It was almost 40 m down. Still felt pretty good but wasn't sure if that would be the case after the long climb out of #25. So I lost a bit of time on 24-26 since I started off heading to #25, and also boomed #26. Thought I would head down the road to the trail, but decided to cut into the forest sooner and didn't read the map well. Was distracted by another runner too (Gary Thompson, who had started early). Wandered around too far north for a bit before realizing the control must be further south. Stopped for a cup of gatorade and think I took the split after that. | |||||
| 27. | +00:15 | NE to the powerline, left the powerline heading SE on the trail. There was more vegetation in the field than mapped and I ended up too far south. Saw that I was too close to the road and corrected. | |||||
| 28. | Out to the road, through the gap in the single trees to the edge of the forest, and into the forest at the bottom of the re-entrant. Probably should have entered the forest sooner to cut off a bit of distance. | ||||||
| 29. | Out to the field, across the roads just east of the junction, and around the south side of the thicket to the marsh. | ||||||
| 30. | +00:10 | Thought about going up to the parking lot, then figured that staying lower by the building would be faster. Don't think it was, because I had to go around the fence (hadn't seen it on the map), and going around it was slow in the forested part. Mikell was coming into #29 as I left. He was behind me coming out of #29 but I didn't see him later in the leg. Planned to use the tree to the NW of the control as an attack point, but didn't identify it and used the vague spur instead. | |||||
| 31. | A little slow going through the forest out of #30, then was inclined to head too far east in the field at first. Mikell came into the control a bit behind me. | ||||||
| 32. | Across the field to the tip of the forest, then straight to the control. Tried to open up a gap on Mikell in case he didn't have a skip left. Not sure if that was the best tactic for a head-to-head battle or how good a chance I had at winning one. Didn't matter as Mikell did have a skip left and skipped #33. | ||||||
| 33. | Pretty much straight, going a bit left of the line in the beginning as the woods looked a bit thick in some spots, and a bit right after crossing the road to stay in the field for a bit. | ||||||
| 34. | Up to the field and west to the road. Didn't see the trail before the creek crossing so I stayed on the road for a bit and tried to spot the trail after the crossing. Didn't see it either, but picked it up after running along the field edge for a bit and cutting down into the forest. Took the northern fork in the trail. Saw the control and headed straight for it. | ||||||
| F. | Feeling pretty good, so a decent sprint for the run-in. |
Total Time Lost - 00:03:15