Race Evaluation
WCOC Trout Brook A-Event: Red
peggyd
| 1. | I'm posting here rather than creating a separate race for the F-elite course, because it's more interesting. So I have a couple long legs! Stayed on the trail until nearly the second NE stone wall, then straight to control. | ||||||
| 2. | Straight. Saw a couple brown (?) runners at control. | ||||||
| 3. | Oops, headed for stone wall & crossed it but soon after realized I'd gone east instead of north. Corrected. East around first marsh, through saddle to the green mess. Ack. Going through was a bit slow but not too bad. Down steep hill, Jim Browne ahead, across trail & around knoll. Saw control, right next to stream, thought no way was that mine but went over and checked anyway and was surprised it was right. | ||||||
| 4. | Angled down the hill away from the stream for a bit then corrected and came out right at the trail/stream junction. Crossed stream and got off trail, crossing second stream and heading up reentrant. Knoll was rather small and control not obvious; I hesitated a bit. | ||||||
| 5. | Didn't see an obvious route so headed more or less straight, along stone wall, skirted stream, up reentrant to trail bend, then NNW to the trail, came out just above the junction. Seemed to be another trail just before the one I was aiming for. Took indistinct trail and then just ran along the contours, reading the boulders in. | ||||||
| 6. | Up to ridge, into valley, onto middle spur --looked for X but didn't see it -- through some green right to the control. | ||||||
| 7. | +01:00 | Headed off on our first separate loop. East through the pond (dry, mostly) then down the cliffs. Control was a cliff, but I didn't read the description well -- it was on top so it would have been better to not drop down. I ran along the cliffs a bit until I figured I must have passed it, turned around and saw it back and above. Climbed up to get it. Next control was NE of this one. Went north to the trail, then threaded through knolls and lake (this one was wet) and through a saddle with laurel on the east and white on the west. Control on a small cliff. From here, headed NW across a few ridges and trails. Control was a boulder at the top of the large green uncrossable marsh, visible from a distance. Pretty easy. Next leg, to Red #7, was a route choice; I spent a few seconds deciding. Back around marsh to the east? Out of the way. Along west side of marsh? Looked rather rocky. I decided to take the indistinct trail across the western ridge and run along the marhes in the next reentrant. Worked well, though I climbed the west ridge a bit early coming back east and had to go through some laurel. Easy navigating to the control. | |||||
| 8. | Straight through gorgeous Harriman-like woods to trail; hit it at the rocky ground. Took trail to bend then across small ridge, past the 2 big boulders, used dark green to lead me in. | ||||||
| 9. | +00:20 | Down spur next to rocky reentrant, east of line. Hit big trail just before junction at yellow. Missed the control by hugging the cliffs too closely and not looking around. Had to go back. | |||||
| 10. | Back to trail and around. John Fredrickson coming into control as I left -- only Red/F I saw all day. Drifted a bit west in leaving but not too bad. Ended up climbing to the control -- should have come in from above. | ||||||
| 11. | Elephant track threw me off when I hit the mapped trail & was confused momentarily. The elephant trail led me directly to the control. | ||||||
| 12. | On the line to the big trail, along it until it lost height, then contoured around a bit and cambe back to control from the S - SW. | ||||||
| 13. | Off on another detour. Our next control was a reentrant with an intermittent stream, just SE of a stone wall that just about ran the entire length of the leg. I didn't use that, though; I ran SE through the field then trail to the stream juntion and around the hill. Next control was up the hill to the south on a tiny boulder. Climbed a bit too high and had to drop about half a contour. Next control was a spur to the SW. Cross two stone walls, rocky bit, then the control. Leaving this control to Red #13, trying a bit to read the stone walls but it really didn't matter because I came right to the big field before the major trail & knew exactly where I was. Ran very close to #2 then NE across the first trail, to the trail junction and due east from there. | ||||||
| 14. | +00:30 | Oops, forgot to check for the fence crossings. Got to the trail/fence junction, turned right (nice elephant trail there) and saw the control on the other side of the fence. Pondered that for about 3 seconds, consulted my map, and turned back uphill. Ack. | |||||
| 15. | Just running speed here. | ||||||
| F. | Ran through the orchard, mostly, instead of the trail. Tracey Olafsen pulled away on the trail. An absolutely delightful day: perfect fall weather, gorgeous woods, fun course. I, too, thought the area is perfect for a Billygoat. I vote for next year! |
Total Time Lost - 00:01:50