West Point, Long
A cold rainy day, ugh! I was not prepared with the right clothes, and once again I wore my light weight running jacket (which was perfect).
As I warmed up, I could tell that my legs were tired and that running was not going to be an option today. My goal was to be clean and keep moving at a brisk pace.
While I waited to start, I looked at the clue sheet and saw that the first control was a water stop, so I knew it was going to be a long leg. I saw most people heading up the road after the start, but one girl (F18?) headed right into the woods. When I saw our first leg, I decided right away to take it straight. I never looked, and therefore never saw, the road option. Given my tired legs, the straight route was the correct decision for me. I caught up with a group of folks looking for the control, but I reminded myself to keep going to the very big cliff on the edge of a noticeable marsh. I led everyone into the marker, and had to push past people to leave :)
My concentration and map reading was good for the next two controls, and I stopped for a few seconds to choose the route to 4. I was executing well and had a plan for when to leave the trail to attack 4. But I messed it up, and my brain function just disappeared. I noticed pretty quickly that I wasn't right and I slowed down and tried to figure it out, but I never did bail back to the trail (as I should have). Instead I just wandered a bit (slowly!) until I saw a huge boulder down the hill, and then my brain recognized it on the map as our 6th control. Somehow in all this wandering I never figured out that I needed to be up on the hill to find 4. But now I ran back up the hill and found it. AP says I lost time to 5 but this must have been just slow walking through the crappy vegetation (which I kept reminding myself was the same for us all!)
I thought it would be a breeze to find 6 since I had already seen it but once again my brain wasn't there. I stopped and hesitated, thought I should have seen it already, questioned myself, backed up, looked around, saw a stream of people heading down the hill and decided it would be best to follow them. I think my body was tired after two races the day before and my concentration was shot today.
I took the intermittent trail to 7 which was a good choice.
I felt OK going to 8, just a bit slower and hesitant than I would like. I knew I was right across from the major hill and cliff, and I was crossing a stream (or two or three). I suddenly felt lost, and I stopped dead in the middle of a stream to figure it out. I must have stood there for a full minute before I convinced myself I was on track and I just had to get through the dark green that I had wandered into.
After that I settled down and finished the course with out any mishaps (probably because it was pretty easy to follow the streams).
I had seen the last control and finish set up as I walked to the start, so as I approached I tried to decide if I would sprint it or not. I decided I wanted to salvage my bad day, so I climbed the hill, stopped for a few seconds to catch my breath, then punched and sprinted for all I was worth to the finish. Fastest woman, a fact that only I would notice or care about, but I'll take the made-up minor victory.
Back to Clinton Corners, for a nice afternoon visiting with the kids and Annette. Stephen made a delicious dinner, I had a couple of glasses of prosecco, and all was right with the world.