| 1 | 11:20 | 11:20 | Up the ski trail with the pack. I hear some rumors that Peter has gone off to the left. I'm being passed by lots and lots of people, including some people with jeans and fanny packs. Where the trails join, I cut off to the left for the trail around the left of the summit. Scott Turner is off ahead and running strongly. Jim Arsenault passes me and we cut a corner, but it's all pretty slow. No trouble jumping over the spur and into the control. |
| 2 | 5:42 | :17:02 | Head east and pick up the east west trail, cutting off at the appropriate time to zip down to the control. Scott is still in sight, Alar just in front, and Paul Bennett just behind. |
| 3 | 4:54 | :21:56 | Follow Alar back on the E-W trail across the stream bed and up to the N-S trail E of the control. Alar gets away, but I come upon the kids (Ross, Samantha, Erin and Shawn) walking along the trail. Duck in at the reentrant. Jim A. is punching just ahead. |
| 4 | 7:49 | 29:45 | Back up the reentrant, through the gravel pit and pick up the trail contouring along NW of the hill. Scott still ahead, Jim out of sight, and Bob Dangel shows up. Getting close I see Steve Olafsen running hard in the opposite direction. Where is he going? I jump in a little too soon, although not as soon as Bob D, but the control is easy. The kids are back and punch ahead of me. |
| 5 | 2:40 | 32:25 | Basically straight. Jim and the kids are off to my right. |
| 6 | 9:43 | 42:08 | Along the road, I plan to cut in before the swamp, but get lazy and stick with the road, cutting in before the NS trail and running the small trail over to it. At the trail junction, up and over the spur with Eric Smith. At the control there are lots of folks, mostly coming back out the way I went in. |
| 7 | 10:09 | 52:17 | To be different from the gang, I head off to the E around the hill, as it looks like most of the others are going N. Run by #9 on the way to 7. I follow my compass instead of the map and get off a little to the S, and have to recover. Jim A shows up around the same time. |
| 8 | 1:59 | 54:16 | Jim is a little right of me. It seems like it takes us a long time to get there. I see Scott, apparently heading for #7. |
| 9 | 1:51 | 56:06 | Along the trail, just ahead of Jim. Easy to find as I went by there on the way to #7. |
| 10 | 19:01 | 1:15:07 | Nothing to be proud of. Run S along the trail a bit, then cut out to the road just S of the marsh, and turn back N along the road to the traffic light. Jim is just behind me. Once we make the turn, he runs by me easily. Having trouble deciding what to do. Think about the trail just after the one to the top of the hill (which in retrospect looks pretty fine). Plan on the one after the parking area, but Jim goes there and I decide to take the next one and come through the saddle N of the control. Bad idea. Nasty running there, and it takes a while to get to the bag. Eric punches just ahead of me. |
| 11 | 3:43 | 1:18:50 | This should be easy, but somehow Eric and I get too high and have to clamber back down. |
| 12 | 7:56 | 1:26:46 | Kind of rough terrain. Contour under the cliffs and into what I think is the right re-entrant, but no bag. I see Pete B and Rob Michaels come back down into the reentrant, and I assume they have overshot and are coming back, but Eric catches up and we decide it must be one reentrant further. It is, but it sure didn't look right to me. As I approach the control a blond fellow passes leaving it. |
| 13 | 5:45 | 1:32:31 | From now on it's me and Eric, although not together all the time. I get out ahead of him and don't see him for a while. Follow the trail around to the reentrant N of the control and in. |
| 14 | 8:49 | 1:41:20 | Out to the trail junction, up the trail NE of the control to the bend and in. I'm doing okay through the little piney stuff, but Eric comes by looking like he knows where he's going, and next thing I know I'm sucked down all the way to the big rock down in the reentrant. I think I see Rob around there. It's kind of a dream to catch him and Pete, but seems unlikely at the rate I'm going. Anyway, back up the hill to the bag. |
| 15 | 11:11 | 1:52:31 | W to the trail, cut across to the EW trail by the stream junction, along to the big bend, across the stream and by the big rocks and up the hill. Stop to look at some big rocks on the edge of the circle, and see Eric catching up, then into the bag. |
| 16 | 5:44 | 1:58:15 | I'm really tired now, and ravenous. Stop to tie my shoe, which takes a really long time, and Eric is out of sight. Get going again and have sort of lost touch, but get it back together. |
| 17 | 9:54 | 2:08:10 | Yuck! Get to the EW trail quickly, then slog along over it. Catch up to Eric just as I hit my ankle on a rock. Head in from the S trail, and the stone wall is a good catching feature. I'm ahead of Eric now. |
| 18 | 8:48 | 2:16:58 | I'm figuring the leaders are done by now (as they are). Mostly walking, get out to the road on the power line, then take the trail just N of the power line on the other side for about 150 M and head up the reentrant toward the control. Start getting a little loose short of the bag, and Eric shows up. We find it together. |
| 19 | 5:49 | 2:22:47 | I get out first, and head straight south to avoid the hill. Cut in from the trail junction. Lots of orange runners in the area. A little bobble, as I'm off to the W, but nothing serious. |
| 20 | 9:18 | 2:32:04 | I'm walking now. Stop to tie a shoe again, which probably takes a full minute. I want to catch the EW trail that goes S of the control, but I'm also being sucked down to the road. Worst of all worlds, I slog along in between. Finally I see Eric running pretty fast down the trail, in company of somebody in a blue suit. I hustle up to the trail, and find that we haven't caught anybody, it's another orange runner. Anyway, follow Eric in and find the bag without trouble. |
| 21 | 4:12 | 2:36:16 | Eric is moving better than I, but stops too soon, so I get there first. Basically we went straight. |
| 22 | 3:13 | 2:39:30 | I hoof it up to the big trail, with Eric in hot pursuit. Just before the trail junction I cut into the reentrant and right under the cliffs to the bag. |
| Finish | 4:57 | 2:44:27 | Out to the road and follow it along. I'm looking over my shoulder, but no sign of Eric. Apparently he bobbled #22. My goal for the leg is 5 minutes, and that goes okay. Up ahead I see Jim A, not moving fast, but neither am I and there's no hope of catching him. It really is taking all my concentration to keep moving. |
Charlie
| 1 | 9:33 | lousy route to the left initially, behind maybe 20 people at paved road | |
| 2 | 5:38 | lots of people too far left (JJ, Bob Lux) | |
| 3 | 4:18 | in a loose group with Tim Parson, Dave Lamb, Dave McGraw, just ahead of JJ and Bob, and by now a couple of minutes behind Ernst and Jeff Saeger. | |
| 4 | 6:34 | ||
| 5 | 2:40 | ||
| 6 | 8:42 | ||
| 7 | 6:44 | trail all the way around to the north | |
| 8 | 1:44 | maybe 1-2 minutes behind Ernst, 1 minute behind Jeff | |
| 9 | 1:36 | (47:30) | |
| 10 | 13:41 | all the way on the road until after the parking lots, just about caught up to Ernst and Jeff near the control (they had taken more direct routes). | |
| 11 | 2:59 | moving slow in the junk, Ernst got away | |
| 12 | 6:53 | ||
| 13 | 4:32 | ||
| 14 | 4:32 | hit it right on through the young pines, see Jeff and Tim as I am leaving (they are still going up to it. Race should have ended right there, as Ernst has in fact missed the control and for about 3 minutes I am in the lead. | |
| 15 | 9:15 | But Ernst has much more energy... as does Jeff who has re-appeared. | |
| 16 | 4:02 | ||
| 17 | 10:23 | Lose ground to Ernst and Jeff, and then lose the small trail on the way (but find lots of rocks and underbrush). Feeling quite depressed. Arrive at the control in time to see Dave McGraw breezing past it without seeing, and a moment later Dave Lamb and Tim arrive from other directions. Tim is unhaapy to have company again ("I prefer to be alone in my misery"). | |
| 18 | 6:52 | I try to oblige Tim by getting away... | |
| 19 | 4:25 | and am now on my own, spiking this one nicely | |
| 20 | 6:43 | but botching #20 a little, when who should arrive from the wrong direction but Jeff (with news that Ernst is long gone). | |
| 21 | 3:14 | with Jeff | |
| 22 | 2:32 | with Jeff | |
| Finish | 4:23 | (2:11:55) | out on the pavement 50 meters ahead of Jeff, which is at least 50 meters less that the necessary head start if I am to hold him off. He closes rapidly, and the only reason we finish together is that he is a gentleman and takes pity on his elders. |
Thanks, Charlie and Peter for your Traverse Stories. My splits are erratic - must have been too excited to aim my thumb properly... I forgot to take the split at #1 and about a minute later the stop button of the watch went off on its own. I had to reset the watch and start from the beginning and somehow lost 70 seconds of recorded time in the process. Thanks to Peter's meticulous time keeping I have been able to calibrate my splits that I took thereafter. I calculated all of Peter's and my cumulative times, so we can compare our standing.
| 1 | 13:26 | I followed Dave McGraw to the right. He took the route over the top, JJ Cote and I turned off at the trail to go left around the ski mountain. This turned out to be faster than I thought - Had played with the idea of going left right from the start, but saw nobody around me doing it. I ended up in the lead and reached #1 just a bit before Dave who was thrashing down the mountain. | |
| 2 | 13:26 | I was quite nervous being in the lead: Memories from two years ago, when I, after breaking off from the field, bobbled big time and lost 10 minutes. By trying to catch up I overdid my pace, hit the wall about 3/4 through the race and felt awful in the end. So, this time I said to myself: concentrate, navigate well. Went due east, dropped not more than one contour, hit the second trail at the stream crossing, attacked over the spur 100 m later, no problem. I hear nobody behind me. | |
| 3 | 10:47 | Went left a bit along the trail, then up the stream, trough the marsh. Jeff Saeger in front at the flag: How did he get there so fast? Turned out he went right around along the trails. | |
| 4 | 24:13 | Obvious route on trail trough the "notch". In the lead again | |
| 5 | 2:56 | 27:09 | I am very hesitant as I cross the road, saw cars parked to my left but was unable to read the small field on the map. Try to gauge the distance from the road fork to my right. Then I spot the knoll before the reentrant, approach the flag that was not very visible. Jeff and possibly others on my tail now. |
| 6 | 8:09 | 35:18 | I take the left around route, attach from veg-boundary/trail junction. Someone (Axelson? ) just left the control to my big surprise. Jeff not in sight. |
| 7 | 6:48 | 42:06 | I went left around. Was considering of cutting through the green but ended up near the road too fast. Axelson? close behind me. Dave McGraw about 1and1/2 minutes behind me as I approach 8 from 7. Jeff reappears again. Did not eat at 8, consolidated my lead into 9. |
| 8 | 3:35 | ||
| 9 | 45:41 | ||
| 10 | 15:10 | 1:00:51 | Decided to go left around. Crossed marsh near stonewall. Followed Rt 28 north, then: Big mistake: tried to take the "map correction" trail up Chickatawbut. There was no fast way around it, so ended up nearly at the Top. Fought through burned down underbrush - lost about 2 minutes. Jeff in front of me on the trail. Before the control he ties his shoe. I Hear Peter G. and others behind me. I am not sure if I am still in the lead. |
| 11 | 2:40 | 1:04:10 | Rough going over the top, I push hard, hear nobody behind me. |
| 12 | 5:15 | 1:08:46 | Tried the straight line route, but dropped down to about two contours within the trail. Attack from the prominent spur with hill on top. Nailed this one. |
| 13 | 4:04 | 1:12:50 | Backtrack south to the trail. Nobody in sight. I feel energized. Took left trail for 100m then approach flag trough broad reentrant. |
| 14 | 20:11 | As everyone else attacked from the trail bend. Forgot to check off boulders, get confused amidst all the small evergreen trees. Circle around and attack from the northwestern knoll. Lost 2.5 minutes. Jeff, Tim Parsons and Dave Lamb ? right behind me as I punched. | |
| 15 | Spike it down the spur to trail junction. I see Peter G. ahead of me. I ask about Dave McGraw, he does not know. Together for a while. I move ahead to 15. | ||
| 16 | 1:33:01 | Pretty much a straight line route, took the trail to left for a short distance, then over the top. Could not identify features, it felt "flaky". Slowly approach the cliff still very hesitant. Jeff behind me arriving from the west side. | |
| 17 | 7:01 | 1:40:02 | With Jeff for a while. I went for the lead on the scenic trail over the top, at second intersection to the left then cut over to stonewall. Easy. |
| 18 | 11:26 | Down to the road, had to wait almost a minute to be able to cross, Jeff again with me. Follow trails until we are due south of the control. I am cautious about this one, remember having been lost here in earlier traverses. Ended up walking rather slowly directly to the flag. My calves are starting to cramp up slightly. | |
| 19 | 1:51:28 | I push again pretty hard downhill, follow the two hill tops adjacent to marsh, notice my mistake, correct and attack due east. Jeff arrives from the north just behind me. | |
| 20 | 6:15 | 1:57:43 | Tough fighting my way over to the trail. I fail to cross over to the junction, end up too far south, fight my way up due northwest, there is Jeff "promenading". I take the safe route along trail until due south of the flag. Have a hard time of keeping track of pace and concentrating on navigation - but had no problem finding this one. |
| 21 | 2:52 | 2:00:35 | Over to trail with a little climb, then contouring over. I spot the little spur and Aims Coney on orange near the flag. I expected Jeff, and possibly others behind me. I had been slowing down. I was pretty tired at this point and I was careful to keep the cramping down. |
| 22 | 6:55 | Up the trail to near the end, then looked for the reentrant, and around the cliff. Expected control at the eastern cliff at first, but then just kept running towards the flag. | |
| Finish | 2:07:30 | I knew where to go from here. Took a bad fall down the hill - Still worried about a gang of people behind me. I pushed as hard along the paved road for a while. A couple looks back provided great relief: Nobody in sight. Thank goodness, I really was not up for a duelling finish at all. |
After the third or fourth control I was so close to Charlie DeWeese at most of the controls that there is hardly need for a second set of commentary. Nonetheless....
| 1 | 11:35 | Spent a few seconds looking at the map and trying to figure out how to avoid some of the climb on this first leg. Followed the large crowd going up the ski slope, then skirted around the left along with lots of others, in particular seeing the gang of kids up ahead, and Charlie. | |
| 2 | 5:47 | 17:22 | Mostly just following the crowd, trying to pick up a few of the places I lost while standing in line waiting for one of the three punches at the first bag to free up, trying to at least read the map in case someone up ahead was being careless, but not having needed to be quite so cautious. |
| 3 | 5:09 | 22:32 | Follow trails along to the east of control, in the company of lots of others. |
| 4 | 7:00 | 29:33 | Followed obvious trail to the north, following slightly behind the group of kids who are chattering away quite socially, clearly running with about half the effort that it feels like I'm putting out. |
| 5 | 3:11 | 32:44 | Down to the road, crossing just where the big trail came down, so no difficulty in knowing just what angle to run over at. |
| 6 | 9:17 | 42:02 | Surprised to see Charlie cutting off the road just beyond the swamp, pass the kids just before turning off on the next trail, and see Charlie come shooting up the trail from the side. Lots of people coming back out to the trail from the control as we are going in, making it pretty easy to be sure we're on track. |
| 7 | 10:24 | 52:27 | had planned to go more or less due east down the hill, then take the trail north around the west side of the hill. But just ahead of me, Charlie goes around the hill the other way. Figure it looks about the same distance, and that maybe he has thought of some good reason for going that way that has escaped me. Following ever farther to his rear as we slog up seven or eight contours, I begin to regret having been so suggestible. Jim Arsenault passed along the uphill segment, but took the left fork rather than the right as we got around the east side of the hill, then showed up again as we were approaching the control. |
| 8 | 1:48 | 54:16 | Straight line, can see the boulders long before the flag. |
| 9,10 | 20:09 | 1:14:26 | Forgot to hit the watch at 9, though judging from Charlie's time, it would have been about 2:00. I had been thinking about cutting through the green at one of the narrow spots to the road as I approached 9, but was disconcerted to see Charlie who was about ten seconds ahead go flying back to the trail and generally to the south, and Jim going southeast apparently planning to skim the swamp to the south. Deciding that the green might really be pretty bad, and that I had been doing enough following other people for a while anyway, I decided after a bit more hesitation to head north to the crossroad and to follow it across Rt 28. Probably enough farther so that it wasn't really a good idea, though it may have saved a couple of contours of climb. At least I hit the light perfectly at the corner! Ran on the second trail, going past the swamp and then to the end of the little swamp before cutting over reasonably precisely to the bag. I had last seen Charlie vanishing into the distance going up the road, so figured that I must have lost some ground on this control. |
| 11 | 4:06 | 1:18:32 | Started on a straight line, but things got very dense, so I cut over nearer the cliffs on the north where the running was still a bit slow, but much better. Quite surprised to see Charlie coming in just after I had punched. Where had he been? |
| 12 | 8:20 | 1:26:52 | Somehow, by now things slowed down quite a bit. The first ten controls were all basically about 10min/K, except for 1,7,10 which were slightly slower because of climb. Didn't really seem to me that I was slowing down so much, but perhaps there was quite a bit of underbrush on about three in a row here, and the pace never really picked up again after leaving it. On 12 some of the delay may have been because of the circle on my map having been a bit heavy and rather distorted my perception (I didn't realize it was there on the map until a bit too late) of a reentrant going up just a bit to the left of the one with the flag, but fortunately there were a couple of people coming back out from the control, and a couple of steps further up the hill the correct reentrant was immediately visible. |
| 13 | 5:43 | 1:32:45 | Took in a loop of trail, then hot on Charlie's heels in to the flag. |
| 14 | 9:14 | 1:41:50 | Probably the least clean leg of the day. Got a little disoriented by all the little pines and got a spur too far over. Was clear when looking down into the reentrant with the stony ground in the bottom of it what had happened, so it wasn't actually lots of time to correct. |
| 15 | 10:40 | 1:52:30 | Down the spur to trail junction, along right-hand trail to bend, then across swamp, past a couple of huge boulders, and manage to catch up with Charlie again at the control, having thought I'd probably lost him for good when he got out of the previous control more expeditiously than I had. |
| 16 | 4:47 | 1:57:17 | More or less on a straight line, seeing the little knolls on top of the otherwise rather flat hilltop, and quite expeditiously on over the top to the cliff. Charlie had somewhere vanished (tying a shoe, I gather after the fact). |
| 17 | 11:02 | 2:08:19 | Pretty slow going following and occasionally losing the little trail over the top (nice views, though!) Charlie catches me on this stretch, and got a slightly better line in to the flag at the end, beating me there by a few seconds. |
| 18 | 8:36 | 2:16:56 | I stopped to drink a few cups of water. (I had also stopped at 13 for water), and Charlie was long out of sight before I left. I lost probably more than a minute at the road crossing with interminable strings of cars first from one direction and then from the other. I decided while I was waiting to at least move up the road a bit to cross one trail farther north. Ran past the first set of trail junctions by a bit, then noticed that the woods were pretty open, so ran up a reentrant in direction of control a bit earlier than I had planned originally to cut in off the trail. Pleased to see Charlie's shirt ahead as I got nearer to the flag, and got there about the same time as he did (he seemed to have strayed just a bit off to the left shortly before the knoll.) |
| 19 | 6:46 | 2:23:42 | I got a bit behind here, being slowed down by the younger pine stuff at the top of the hill midway to the control. I was at least on a nice straight line, hitting the trail junction about 100m from the control, but could see Charlie heading out as I was coming in. |
| 20 | 7:59 | 2:31:42 | Hit the small trail along to the south of the flag, and followed it along, hit the flag quite nicely. Could see Charlie coming along behind, so tried to move out quickly after punching. |
| 21 | 4:36 | 2:36:18 | Blew this one pretty seriously. Got to the ridge just before the control, which somehow didn't look like a ridge to me on the map--control circle doing funny things to my visual perception again. Somehow didn't have the right overview of the situation, with the little teeny spur down in the middle of a big flat reentrant, and although I saw a flag down below, and saw someone punching in (Jim Arsenault, though I didn't recognize it at the time), I really didn't quite believe it was mine, and was thinking it must be up near where I was standing until Charlie came running past and down to punch. Once again I'm behind--this time for keeps! |
| 22 | 4:31 | 2:40:49 | Trying to hit the southern of two tracks going over to the general vicinity of the control, but manage to split the difference between the two of them. See Charlie hit the road on the north and go tearing off at a great pace. He's already going off from the junction by the time I get up to the road, and I get one cliff too far to the left and am momentarily baffled as I get into the circle. |
| in | 5:18 | 2:46:07 | Run in at a modest pace, but there's nobody in sight in either direction, so there's no great incentive to really push here at the end. |
Ross seems not to have recorded many splits from the group of kids who went out, so I would be interested in a report from Sam, since I understand she was doing a better job of punching the watch buttons!
Eric
I measured the Traverse course at 15.06 km (as opposed to the advertised 14.1), which may make some people feel better about their times. And to preempt Gagarin, I'll add that this is not fudged to make my time come out to less than 10 min/km.
| 1 | 9:08 | 0:09:08 | I saw immediately that I wanted to take the trail around to the left, but had trouble overcoming the peer pressure to go up the ski slope. I cut left early, and I guess I was briefly in the lead until Ernst went by, saying something about a poor route choice, not realizing how well we were doing. Jeff Saeger passes, Tim Parson is right there, and other people are around as well. Dave McGraw surprises me by coming down off the hill, takes the lead, then errs right near the control. |
| 2 | 6:19 | 0:15:27 | Following a crowd, and not entirely sure where we went. I think we swung a bit too far to the right and came into the circle heading SE. When we crossed the stone wall, everybody stopped and started looking behind little rocks. I wasn't sure where we were, but I knew we weren't at the control. I cast my gaze farther away, guessing the we should go right, and sure enough, there was Peter Gagarin. Dave McGraw got there about the same time as I did, and Peter made a comment about our being sloppy. |
| 3 | 4:16 | 0:19:43 | Followed Peter along the trail route, with Bob Lux on my trail breathing heavy in a way that sounded like he was constantly mumbling. It occurred to me that Bob was running very strongly and I probably wouldn't be able to keep up with him. Dave McGraw passes us early, but heads off into the woods, and reappears at the control. Jeff Saeger is in here as well. |
| 4 | 6:38 | 0:26:21 | Headed straight for the control, then took the trail route around to the left, following the pack but fading back. I cut off nicely, but only Bob Lux is still with me... until Dave appears coming off the top of the hill. |
| 5 | 3:09 | 0:29:30 | Drank some water, then headed downhill. Dave turned right on the first trail, but caught up and passed me and Bob at the road. |
| 6 | 9:07 | 0:38:37 | Again fading behind a pack. Went past the marsh, trail to junction, then followed the north line to the circle. Saw McGraw and company heading out as I headed in. |
| 7 | 8:52 | 0:47:29 | Almost retracing my steps, took the trail around to the left. The fight didn't look bad at all, so about where it supposedly turned to medium green, I cut right into the woods, which were pretty much okay. Felt like I was slowing down crossing the marsh, and popped out by #8 as Gagarin and company were arriving. Nice running to #7. |
| 8 | 1:30 | 0:48:59 | ...and here's comes a crowd! Michael Hughes, Rob Michaels, and some others arrive just after me from a different direction, so I beat it. |
| 9 | 1:54 | 0:50:54 | Stop for a drink, but no food. As I approach #9, I see Charlie DeWeese and Eric Smith on their way to #7. I'm not really paying attention, and just happened to see the flag out of the corner of my eye. |
| 10 | 16:02 | 1:06:55 | Dumb mistake. I decide to gable on heading more or less straight for the road, but on my first attempt to get through the dark green, I head into marsh and see a sea of greenbriar ahead, so I have to back out. On my second try, I sail right through. Up to the traffic light, and some nice gentlemen are holding the gate open for me. I could see some people up ahead, eventually dwindling down to just Alar. I take the trail just after the road to the top of the hill, which is faster than what Alar does (continues on the pavement), because I essentially catch him right after the marsh. There's also a young fellow in an UNO top here. |
| 11 | 2:29 | 1:09:24 | Alar goes a bit left and gets caught in more gunk, the young fellow and I go through more cleanly, though he's very hesitant. |
| 12 | 9:57 | 1:19:22 | Big mistake. I stay low, pass right under the cliffs, and everything is fine, until I get to near where I think I should be and the contours make no sense. I scratch my head and wander around a little bit, all the while too far SW. Alar shows up from above and passes through, but he hasn't punched yet. I wander uphill a bit, scratch my head some more, and eventually go east and find it. But for a while there I was in a big reentrant that I still don't see on the map. |
| 13 | 5:14 | 1:24:36 | Swung a little bit left near the end, but corrected okay. |
| 14 | 8:24 | 1:33:00 | Told myself to be careful and make sure I headed out of this control in the proper direction. Didn't do it. Was too far left, got confused when I hit the trail, crossed it into the green, then came to my senses and went back to the trail. I was feeling at this point that I just couldn't do anything right. Got worried when I hit the white pines, and in fact overshot to the SW, getting to the boulder at the edge of the circle. Steve Olafsen cruised by, and I followed him, but when I saw the big boulder down on my right, I realized that Steve must have already punched, so I went back and got it. |
| 15 | 8:34 | 1:41:34 | Down to the trail along the swamp, and when Steve went right at the junction, I went left, and took it until the trail went SE, from whence I headed straight for the control. Puzzled by the two-contour hill that was supposed to be E of the control, but which I couldn't see, so I was surprised when the boulders suddenly appeared. Steve got there just ahead of me. |
| 16 | 3:47 | 1:45:21 | Gaining on Steve, as he was reading the map carefully, but just before the control I went down on some rocks and hurt my knee (nothing serious). |
| 17 | 10:52 | 1:56:13 | Yuck. Went too far left, missed the small trail, and hit the big one. Made the mistake of going left on it, then realized my error and headed off through the woods. After crossing the second trail, the woods got really rotten, and I couldn't stand it, so I headed uphill to look for the small trail. When I got o top of the cliffs, I was disappointed that I had put in all that effort for such a stinky trail. Followed it anyway, and Steve caught up near the control. |
| 18 | 7:16 | 2:03:29 | Ate a couple of fig newtons, then headed out across the road. Steve was much stronger and pulled away. |
| 19 | 6:55 | 2:10:23 | Went further left than Steve, and lost sight of him, but after crossing the trail, I got caught in really really horrible thick stuff, grabbing at me, poking me in the eyes (mapped as white!). Didn't know where I was when I crossed the second trail, but when I got down in there, it became obvious that I was too far right. |
| 20 | 5:27 | 2:15:50 | Found the trails, made pretty good time, and saw some orange runners near the control. |
| 21 | 3:44 | 2:19:34 | Straight, no problem, and as I got to the control, I realized that two of the Orange runners ahead of me were Malin Bengtsson and Stroker. I had seen them at a concert the night before, and they said they were planning to do the Traverse. I didn't know they had showed up late and were on Orange, so I hustled, concerned that I was way far back (Malin was in fact moving quite well). |
| 22 | 2:23 | 2:21:57 | Quite clean. |
| Z | 4:58 | 2:26:55 | An error in the chute! I decided to get too cute and cut the corner, but I didn't go far enough to find the small trail, and got stuck in the gunk around the clearing. Didn't matter, there was nobody in sight. Was quite surprised to find out that I had somehow gotten ahead of Bob Lux and Steve Olafsen. |
J-J
| 1 | 9:41 |
| 2 | 6:31 |
| 3 | 5:25 |
| 4 | 7:52 |
| 5 | 2:44 |
| 6 | 11:03 |
| 7 | 10:58 |
| 8 | 2:14 |
| 9 | 2:37 |
| 10 | 23:10 |
| 11 | 4:59 |
| 12 | 8:45 |
| 13 | 7:25 |
| 14 15 | 23:14 |
| 16 | 5:40 |
| 17 | 12:24 |
| 18 | 10:32 |
| 19 | 7:50 |
| 20 | 8:08 |
| 21 | 3:50 |
| 22 | 3:13 |
| in | 4:52 |
I think everyone else who exchanged split times was faster than me. I enjoyed it a lot. I wasn't expecting to be as fast as last year, and that's how it worked out.
| 1 | 10:19 | 10:19 | I encountered the juniors over and over again. At first there were a half dozen or more sticking together, whom I saw at or near most of the first 10 controls. They appeared to have nice, fresh legs but I imagined that my navigation was better at times. |
| 2 | 6:03 | 16:21 | |
| 3 | 5:18 | 21:39 | |
| 4 | 7:58 | 29:38 | |
| 5 | 3:22 | 32:59 | |
| 6 | 11:24 | 44:24 | |
| 7 | 11:30 | 55:54 | From 6 to 7, I decided to go N way around the hill, and soon discovered that I had already gone part way on the trail to the top of the hill. As I turned back, an HVOer said, "I never go back on a route choice", which seemed to me good advice that misinterpreted my situation. |
| 8 | 4:22 | ||
| 9 | 1:00:15 | ||
| 10 | 19:06 | 1:19:21 | On the way to 10 I met the juniors going around the N side of Chickatawbut Hill on Chickatawbut Road. I left the road before they did, 250m before the parking areas. I found the control fairly well, and a minute after leaving the control I met them SE of the control, having apparently followed the trail too far and cut in too late toward the control. I took a competitive attitude and left them to find their own way. |
| 11 | 6:12 | 1:25:33 | I needed the advantage, because on the way from 11 to 12 I felt the first cramping in my calves. |
| 12 | 10:51 | 1:36:24 | |
| 13 | 5:54 | 1:42:17 | From there I had to ease off, and after 15 confined any jogging to trails. The change of pace was somewhat enjoyable. |
| 14 | 7:51 | 1:50:09 | |
| 15 | 11:51 | 2:02:00 | |
| 16 | 6:12 | 2:08:12 | |
| 17 | 12:07 | 2:20:19 | |
| 18 | 11:18 | 2:31:37 | |
| 19 | 9:00 | 2:40:36 | |
| 20 | 9:59 | 2:50:35 | But on the way to 20, four of the young people caught up with me. |
| 21 | 5:01 | 2:55:37 | Leaving control 20 I came up to the trail, and saw a family of orienteers approaching. A boy looked familiar, and on a second look I said, "Brendan?" It was a kid from my son Philip's soccer team, whose parents I had chatted with just the previous day at the final game of the fall soccer season. I greeted them and went on, perpendicular to their course. |
| 22 | 5:10 | 3:00:47 | |
| finish | 3:46 | 3:04:33 | The juniors stayed ahead through the last control (22) but when I got to the road below 22 there they were walking and discussing. I ran past, with the idea of beating them to the finish. After a minute cramps in my calves and quads forced me back to a walk. Soon the young folks passed me at a run, their pack having broken up. My son Kevin met me a little from the finish, encouraging and accompanying me as I managed to jog a little more. |
Scott