Race Evaluation
US Short Course Championships: Blue
mindsweeper
| 1. | Good thing the first control was streamered. Too bad the streamers didn't lead to it. I lost my splits in an episode of scrambling for the seatbelt when a police car drove by with lights and sirens. My old Accurex II erases previous splits when a new session is started. The next day I left the clock running for 12 hours after finishing, until it was time to write the splits down. | ||||||
| 2. | Stayed left of the reentrants, then skirted the green and found it easily. | ||||||
| 3. |
Bad compass work +00:30 | To the road, on the road until corner of parking lot. Missed slightly to the left and passed it. | |||||
| 4. |
Bad compass work +00:20 | For some reason I missed far to the left again but this time I didn't overshoot. Maybe I was avoiding the green. | |||||
| 5. | On compass. | ||||||
| 6. | Through the field to the corner of the parking lot. Climbed to the ruined fence and looked for the unmapped clearing. | ||||||
| 7. |
Underrated difficulty +00:20 | Stayed high before crossing the stream, but then dropped too much in looking for the reentrant. Had to climb back up a bit. | |||||
| 8. | Was going to use the trail bend as an attackpoint, but it was too vague to use reliably. Instead relied on when the cliffs disappeared. | ||||||
| 9. |
Bad route choice Underrated difficulty Confused parallel features Lacked confidence +02:30 | Should have run on the shelf, but dropped to the path instead, planning to use the boulder by the path as an attackpoint. When I got to it I was suddenly very uncertain whether it was the one a bit further away 50m before, although that one clearly had vegetation in between. Went on a W loop before swinging back and finding the control. Should have gone on compass from the boulder and nailed it. | |||||
| 10. | On compass, aiming to the right to hit the trail, then found it easily. | ||||||
| 11. | On compass again, hoping I'd find bag in woods. | ||||||
| 12. | On compass aiming left to hit cliffs, then followed them until the correct one with bag appeared. | ||||||
| 13. |
Bad map reading +01:00 | I knew that this one would be tricky, but it took me a long time to read the map correctly. I stayed in the wrong reentrant for a while until I realized I had to climb over the small spur. | |||||
| 14. | Trail down the hill, then up the other side, using clearing below to aim. Was a bit crowded in the area but I ignored the other people and nailed it. | ||||||
| 15. | Through the green, not bothering with trails. | ||||||
| 16. | On trail to bend, then on spur until I found the bag at the end of it. | ||||||
| 17. |
Did not like map Bad compass work Lacked concentration +02:30 | Contoured to trail. On my way down the short hill to the trail junction I kicked a rock with my right foot and fell on my shoulder, back, hip and various other body parts. By landing with all parts at the same time, I didn't break much skin, and slid about 3m before stopping. After this spill I lost concentration, and I ended up much further W than I was supposed to be after entering the forest. I hit the area mapped as green, but since this area in reality should have been green stripes (visibility was great), I didn't put two and two together. I tried using the direction of the contours to figure out what side of the hill I was on, and ventured further and further NW. Eventually I found #18, and went on compass back up to #17. | |||||
| 18. | Been there, done that. | ||||||
| 19. |
Bad route choice +00:10 | I somehow convinced myself that going down into the streambed was a good idea, mostly because some other guy with a Scandinavian suit was running in the direction I ought to be going, and I demonstratively didn't want to be caught following him. Seeing as how he came running into the control just before I got to it, it couldn't have been such a bad route after all. | |||||
| F. | Knowing margins were going to be tight, I put in a decent finishing sprint despite the discouraging mistake at #17. |
Total Time Lost - 00:07:20