US Champs day 1 Brown X at Ward Pound Ridge. Quite a fine day. I approached it with some trepidation because my R leg was quite sore. The navigation was pretty easy, which suits me, and the woods nice and open. I never went very fast, but never slowed down much either.
1. Crossed the two walls heading a bit S of West, saw the hill developing to my left and came in below the top, spike. 3:06.
2. Generally SSE, staying below the hill on the right. Across the trail, where the marsh on the map was greener than expected, so I stayed up a line and came around from the right. Spike. 5:22.
3. Same direction, staying in the depressions with better footing. Climbed in along the top, coming from below would have been faster, but no trouble. Spike. 2:56
4. E to the trail, past the big hill and left up the marshy bit( which was quite dry) to the trail N to the junction and then contouring. It was a bit further than I expected, but just kept going a bit. 5:59.
5. More or less along the line, zigging and zagging a bit past stone walls and cliffs, hitting the trail near the water stop and easy from there. Could see the hill from the trail so just along the side of it. 6:27.
6. Had thought I would go straighter but ended up heading more E than I realized, getting to the marshy area near the stream junction and then turning N. Pretty straight from there, past the cellar hole, then the trail and the boulders beyond it at the bend. Just under the hill with the dot knoll, straight in to the rather unremarkable boulder. 7:40.
7. Keeping track of walls, along the right side of the NS wall, thinking I was right on, and stopped when I didn't see it. Stopped to look at the map and realized I had to turn down a line, so maybe lost 30 seconds or so. 4:27.
8. Pretty much along the line, not dropping down as far as the wall, finding it easy to wind through the nasty looking brush. I saw Lex up ahead, who seemed to be moving pretty well, but then she stopped a bit and I caught up. Across the wall, past the small wall segment and I could see it ahead. Spike. 4:25.
9. I was determined to go fairly straight and not take the trail around to the left. Up the hill thinking I would follow some wall segments, then realized there was a small trail up there. Jon Campbell passed me just before the trail, but I was moving well and might have passed him back except I was getting messages from my R quad to keep it under control, so just held my pace. 3:48.
F. 29, resisting the urge to sprint.
Probably my best run from a navigation perspective since WMOC 2012 in Germany. Surprisingly good.
Map and route.