Race Evaluation
Blue Hills Traverse: Traverse
Charlie
| 1. | Not my best work. Got stuck at the back of a long line crossing the initial marsh, and fell in with Eric Smith, Sam Levitin and Valeriy Doverov. Didn't have a clear sense of where I was for the longest time, which was a shame because I was basically going parallel to the SW/NE road through some really crappy woods. Then went parallel to the trail that leaves from the road bend through some more crappy woods until I finally got down to the trail. Shook Erik and Valeriy only to come up on Mary Smith, which convinced me (as if I needed convincing) that things were not going well. Up the trail and in without incident. | ||||||
| 2. | For some reason it seemed like a good idea to climb to the footpath. Almost right away I got a stick in my ear. Hurt quite a bit, and it broke off too far in for me to reach. Stopped for a while to assess the situation. Then missed the narrow trail and continued on over to the wider one. Headed generally south, cut across at the junction, picking up the next trail at the wall, then on trail, seeing a bunch of folks coming back up the hill as I went in, including George and Ken Walker. | ||||||
| 3. | After seeing all those folks climbing, decided that must be a good route and didn't really consider the lower route, so along the trail climbing some more, where I got passed by Jeff Shapiro. Cut off too soon, but basically just fumbled my way down looking for the bend in the wall, then stayed parallel to the wall until I got to the knoll. Got ahead of Jeff again in the process. | ||||||
| 4. | Jeff ran by on the road. Beginning to wonder if I would finish in daylight | ||||||
| 5. | Along ride to bend, then in across the depression. | ||||||
| 6. | Through dry marsh, picking up trail right of line, then approaching on trail from the corner NE of control, seeing Fred, the Walkers, and Bruce Shenker going back up the trail. | ||||||
| 7. | Back up and hopped across to the trail that forms an S under the line, around the fairly benign knoll, then up the footpath a bit and in. Bruce coming over the knoll from the right, and passed Hans Bengtsson just before the flag | ||||||
| 8. | Back out to the trail and NE to jct and down to road. Bruce passed on the road, and I got the not so bright idea of going on the trail by the pond. Crunched my ankle dropping down through the rocks. Really slow and particularly bad route choice. Control was easy. | ||||||
| 9. | Road, trail. A couple of guys near the control. | ||||||
| 10. | W to the trail and around on trail to the W. Thought I would contour from the distinct trail bend, but it wasn't as distinct as I thought and ended up all the way down at the jct W of control. With Bruce climbing past wall and in. | ||||||
| 11. | Straight up to second trail, then down on trail, seeing George and Ken among others on their way up toward 12. Easy, and could see it from a distance after I crossed the stream. | ||||||
| 12. | Back up the hill and on trail all the way around, although I cut the corner near the dark green marsh. | ||||||
| 13. | Trails, cutting the corner at the jct where the trail goes W before bending around, and just straight in from there. | ||||||
| 14. | Trail S to jct, then on bearing and right to it. Jeff Shapiro and Bob Dangel just ahead. | ||||||
| 15. | Climbing, losing a bit of ground to those guys, but picking them up again when they wobbled near the end and I went straight in. | ||||||
| 16. | Behind Jeff and in front of Bob. Jeff went low along the marsh, so I went high on trail to do something different. High was pretty good because the cliff was so high, and we got there together. | ||||||
| 17. | W to the trail and stopped to contemplate. Trying to piece some route across that was generally straight or left of line, but gave up and just started running hard on the right. Got to a point more or less E of water tower and just aimed left of it, spiking. | ||||||
| 18. | Only control I had to search for. Got into the rocks too low and had to climb. | ||||||
| F. |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00