Race Evaluation
NEOC Troll Cup Day 2: Red
peggyd
| 1. | After joking about picking up the wrong map, I am about to pick up the Blue map when Karen W. and others yell at me. Should have stuck with Blue, at least I would have had a good excuse for such a bad run. Cut off switchback, and didn't run to junction but tried to cut through woods to reentrant. Didn't go far enough west, hit trail anyway, then the parallel reentrant. Realized I had to go west, but by the time I did I was well below the control. Daniel S, Karen, and Kristin all were leaving as I trudged up the hill. | ||||||
| 2. | Down to trail through unmapped green and (?) weird reentranty/depression thing. west on trail to green crap. Greg B came out of reentrant just ahead on the trail and went further on the trail, avoiding green but I beat him to the control. | ||||||
| 3. | Nervous about going straight but I did it anyway; as I neared the knoll that the small knoll was on, I saw Daniel and Karen ahead. Yay. | ||||||
| 4. | Daniel, Kristin, Karen & I were together; I hit the trail first and took it too far. Misread map and headed up the cliffy slope SW of the control; on top found the trail again. All three followed me -- I figured at least one of them would have realized my mistake and sneaked to the control. I corrected and was first in. | ||||||
| 5. | "To the trail" said Kristin, which I agreed but silently wondered briefly whether to go east or north. Chose north and started running. Not a good leg for me with three stronger runners behind me. They all passed me -- Daniel & Karen along the main trail & Kristin once we turned into the woods. Kristin & I took the ride briefly before turning east while D & KW turned at the reentrant a bit before. We caught them going up the big knoll to the control. All a bit confused when we saw rocks before the control but didn't waste much time. D then Kris, me and Karen punched in. | ||||||
| 6. | Daniel seemed to turn right on the trail, Karen following; I turned a bit left and contoured around the spur; Kristin went even further to the left to get to the nice woods of the reentrant. No reason not to run in these nice woods except tiredness. Daniel hit the control first, me second with a bunch of green runners (remember only Hillary Saeger) also in the mix. | ||||||
| 7. | All headed uphill and a bit to the left. I glanced at my map, didn't see the trail, and said to Karen, I don't think I want to climb that and I headed down and right. Through the saddle and down along the base of the hill, up the saddle that dropped me right into the control on the other side. This would have been a good choice if I had committed sooner and the downhill hadn't been so steep and rocky. Had to really control my speed and that hurt. The woods at the base of the hill, at least, were gorgeous. Hillary S. was the only person in sight when I hit the control and then I figured I'd made a really bad route choice and, at the least, Kristin and Daniel were gone. | ||||||
| 8. | There's another small rocky knoll just to the east of #8, which I hit first. Damn this map. I thought I saw someone at the control knoll briefly but wasn't sure. | ||||||
| 9. | Map really bad on the north of the spur. Tricky leg, and I drifted a bit east of the line, coming across unmapped boulders/cliffs and reentrants. Headed back and saw Karen just leaving as I approached. | ||||||
| 10. | Down, up, trail right at the bridge; saw Karen across the stream in the woods. She hit the trail and left at the bend a few steps ahead of me. I stayed low near the swamp; at one point I got into a thorny area, fell, and my hair got caught in a thorny vine. Took several seconds to disentangle. Hit just two trails so I knew I was low. Started climbing and went right past the boulder NNE of ours on the spur, with a control on it. Up the reentrant to our control, it seemed to be a long way up. Karen right behind me. | ||||||
| 11. | Said I didn't like my choices here, and Karen said "the trail!" Sure, the upper one made more sense, but I still didn't like my choices. Karen easily passed me on the trail and I just tried to keep her within striking distance. Passed lots of Brown/Green runners coming the other way. Near the first junction I heard Nadim yell "go Peggy" which was nice but also a drag as I knew he'd made up 3+ minutes on me and would soon pass me on this runner's leg. All three of us hit the trail junction about the same time; I headed NNW into the woods with Nadim to my left. He must have headed straight to the trail just east of the powerline, which would have been smart...the felled area was a bit slow. Finally hit the powerline; saw Nadim heading to #12 and Karen on the trail ahead whimpering. I ducked in behind her and punched in ahead. | ||||||
| 12. | I figured Karen had an excellent chance of catching me so I tried to run hard. More or less straight, down the hill to the stream and up to the small trail. My plan was to take the trail all the way to the powerline, but when I got to the junction I saw Hillary S. heading straight through the woods and I figured that was the thing to do -- don't be a wimp and stay on the trail. On the powerline, Hillary and someone else went into the woods at what looked like a low spot; I cut it off just a bit but once in the woods I saw a hill to my left instead of a reentrant and Hillary heading back toward me. I was then brain-dead confused and thought I was south of the control; there was a reentrant to my right so I headed up to the top of it. No control and I was confused. Came out onto the trail and very stupidly turned north. Eventually figured out that wasn't right and headed back, all the way to the streamered junction and in from there. Karen was heading to the finish on the streamered trail as I approached the control. Very frustrating to end the race this way. | ||||||
| F. | Peter's comment to me as I finished was "Nadim beat you." Okay, I already knew that, and boy, kick a person when she's down! I was okay with my rapidly-improving husband beating me, I wasn't okay with my own race. After 20 years, shouldn't I be better at this?? |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00