Race Evaluation
Billygoat Run: 27th Annual
PBricker
| 1. | Down the trail past the flooded open area, up to the power line intersection, then just making sure I was in the right reentrant. Strangely, nobody with me at the first control punch, a Billygoat first. | ||||||
| 2. | Left of the pond where J-J caught me and I went with him, and then behind him, taking the trail for a ways, then missing a bit to the right. Unfortunately, a big group came in from the right ahead of me and I was sixth in line to punch, probably losing 20 seconds. | ||||||
| 3. | +02:30 | The group went right of line, I went left and lost contact with the map and overshot. Tim G. and Suzanne were also looking for it. Fortunately, we saw the big group on the way to four, realized we were too far, and went back to it. | |||||
| 4. | To the reentrant. Tried staying high on the left side, but it was too rocky and ended up going back down to the bottom. | ||||||
| 5. | +05:00 | The group, the rear of which I had caught up to, looked like they were going too high, I stayed lower with Ken Walker, but I lost track of where I was and started wandering up the broad spur 200m (!) before the control, until I was way too high. Saw Carl Childs going by (who was also too high) and followed him to it. | |||||
| 6. | Straight. Carl still ahead of me. | ||||||
| 7. | +01:30 | Carl headed right. I decided to go basically straight. Jim H. and a couple others were following me - not usually a good idea, but in this case I knew where I was the whole way. Took bits of trails, including the indistinct trail (on the line) that goes near a junk car. When I got to the big trail I decided the safer route was left of line by the big cliff and around green knoll to the trail. Carl came in from the right near the bottom, and also went around, but he's faster and I lost him. Perfect until the last 50 meters where I misread the map, drifted right, and had to hunt a bit. | |||||
| 8. | Went a bit right of line to avoid some climb and attacked from the top of the stone wall to the west. Jim H. and Mikkel C. were behind me; saw Carl again at the control. | ||||||
| 9. | +02:30 | Carl headed right of line, but I thought it would save climb to stay left. Map contact got a bit hazy (unmapped trails didn't help) and I mistook the knoll right on line 100 meters before the control (where I was) for the smaller rocky knoll to the east. With Mikkell, who wasn't sure where he was, we drifted left of the control and had to come back for it. | |||||
| 10. | Headed down the reentrant to the stream, crossed the trail, and cut over two reentrants to the correct spur. Jim H. was with me. Pavlina came into the control ahead of me. | ||||||
| 11. | Three of four of us together, including Tim G., Bernie, and Tim P. who caught up here. (I was surprised to see him back with me, even more surprised when he said he had already skipped.) Pretty straight route. | ||||||
| 12. | Following Tim P., not sure exactly where we were until we hit the trail. I stayed a bit lower than Tim, and spiked it. | ||||||
| 13. | Straight, behind others. | ||||||
| 14. | +00:30 | Includes about a minute drinking 3 cups each of gatorade and water. Others followed me towards 14, and I lead them a bit to the right. | |||||
| 15. | Skip. The others headed to 15, leaving me on my own. Skipping 15 saved a lot of distance, but added some climb. In retrospect, I think 9 was the best skip (as my knowledge of the map and terrain should have told me!) | ||||||
| 16. | Navigationally easy, but very, very slow angling up the hillside. To avoid climbing straight up, I went near 12 and the bottom of the numeral 12 (saw Jeff S. near 12, surprised he was well behind me). Hit the trail a bit south of the junction; easy from there. Headed down left side of the spur, and just as the reentrant opened up, there was the bag. | ||||||
| 17. | Walked this whole uphill leg. Map seems a bit funky near the control, but spiked it. Leaving the control, I could see someone in a blue shirt (Peter P.?) heading in. | ||||||
| 18. | At least I could jog this easy leg. | ||||||
| 19. | Started cramping badly heading up from the stream. The blue shirt passed me (though he wasn't moving very fast!). I was a bit right, but then saw the reentrant I wanted to head up and went right to it. | ||||||
| 20. | With my hamstring cramping, route choice was a no-brainer: trails around. I jogged the flats and downhills. | ||||||
| 21. | Never saw the open area, even though I came in about 15 meters left of the boulder, from which side the flag was visible. | ||||||
| F. | As fast as I could go. |
Total Time Lost - 00:12:00