Control 17 to control 21:

http://www.geocities.com/okansas.geo/trot2000/part3.html

-- Spike (meglin@juno.com), December 03, 2000

Answers

The race started to get more interesting. I was first at 17, but Rich, Dan and Mook were not far behind. At 18, Mook and Rich caught me. On the way to 18, I'd decided to take the trail along the shore to get me to 19. The better route is to go straighter -- a bit west of the straight line route. That's the way Mook and Rich went.

Mook and Rich got a gap on me. I was worried. I suspected Rich was strong enough to have a good chance to stay with Mook. I also knew I couldn't keep up with Mook. My chance to beat Mook was for Mook to go too fast and boom a control.

Mook and Rich both boomed 20. They were ought of my sight as I headed toward 20. I looked for the reentrant due north of the control, saw it and came to a small ride. I thought it was the ride running right next to the control, but was not sure if the control was left or right. Mook, sprinted by me and I looked to my left and saw the control. Mook was muttering about the map (it is a bit rough in the area). I didn't see Rich.

Mook and I both headed toward the road to go to 21. I think straight is probably faster, but not much faster. At this point in the race, running on a road is a lot easier. It saves your legs a bit compared to running in the woods. When I hit the road, Mook was already pulling away. But, Rich was still out of sight (I was fairly sure he was behind us). I pushed as best I could. I wanted to get around teh corner before Rich saw me. Out of sight, out of mind. I wanted Rich to have no help finding controls. When I got at the bend, I glanced back and saw Rich. I was not out of sight.

Suddenly a car pulled up next to me and slowed. It was Grover and, sittting in the back seat was Dan! Dan had turned an ankle and was getting a lift back.

After rounding the road bend, I took a gulp of "gu." 21 was a water stop, so I'd be able to wash the gu down. I spent a good 30 seconds at 21 trying to open the water bottle (two levels of tamper-resistant packing!). As I was leaving 21, Rich was coming down the hill to the control.

I pushed (as best I could) to 22 and tried to get in to and out of the control as quick as possible. I wanted to get away before Rich got close to the control.

As it turned out, Rich boomed 22. From being just a few seconds behind me at 21, he lost a couple of minutes.

-- Spike (meglin@juno.com), December 04, 2000.

Having learned my lesson, I headed out to the fields to the right of the line to 17. As I approached the control I saw Rich and Spike punching and/or leaving. I punched and set up chase across the field to 18. We went down the trail on top of the spur, then down to the boulder.

The approach to 19 was where the race for first started to take place. I ran pretty straight, but saw that Spike had headed for the shoreline. I must have punched 19 first.

Near 20, I found the ride, headed left, downhill but didn't see the control feature from the ride. I should have gone into the woods parallel to the ride. I hit the semi-open area at the north end of the ride and turned around and got the control. Rich had gotten to the ride and headed down to where I left. I didn't see him again. Spike was also approaching the control as I left it.

I wanted the road run to 21. Getting out of the woods was tricky because there were plenty of thorns, but I managed to get onto the road. I didn't see anyone on the course ever again, but if I had looked back along the road, I suppose I would have spotted Spike and Rich one last time.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), December 05, 2000.

I continued running straight at controls. The exception was 17 where I preferred the longer route through the field to 400 meters of carnivorous vegetation. The move also had psychological value: after the mistake to 14 and then two hilly legs to 15 and 16, I had dropped back to my “St. Louis” pace of around 9:30 per kilometer. Running through the field forced me to get back to a speed more appropriate for the open terrain.

Coming up on 20 I made the classic mistake of stopping too early. Convinced that I would be able to see the bag from the reentrant, I ran most of the way down to the lake and then back up before crossing over to search the spur. By the time I found the control, Gary had caught me along with Orlyn Skrien and Dave Frei. This was particularly disappointing because I knew that both Dave and Gary could outrun me and I wasn’t sure I’d get another chance to shake them.

-- Eric Buckley (ejbuckley@earthlink.net), December 06, 2000.

16 to 17

.5025 km 7.5375 km 5:31.09 1:18:33.00 10:58.89 min/km 10:25.27 cum min/km

Plan: use the clearing, going to the right. Ended up emerging into the clearing near the trailhead. Would have been a bit quicker to have gone more to the right and reach the clear area sooner. Entered the woods near the reentrant, crossed to the left side and noticed the ditch top was lower. Also noticed there were at least two ditches that were 'middle'. Slowed down and sighted the flag off to my left. Scampered downhill and puched. Still enjoying how nice the map matches the terrain.

17 to 18

.5635 km 8.100 km 4:48.00 1:23:21.00 8:32:00 min/km 10:17.41 cum min/km

Hah. A really fun one. Plan: use small clearing as attack point. From 17 crossed the reentrant roughly northeast, out to the clearing, looking for the trail head. What that? A parking lot? Trail head must be nearby. Ah, there it is. Not as well traveled as I'd imagined, but it works. Remembering the bobble at 12, take a better bearing and slow down leaving the clearing. No problem.

18 to 19

.465 km 8.565 km 6:43.61 1:30:04.61 14:27.98 min/km 10:31.01 cum min/km

Plan: straight, crossing the two reentrants. (No real attack point. Looking back, may have been faster to contour higher.) Climbed towards the clearing south of the 18th control, the contoured, passing the two inlets. Remeniscent of 13 to 14. Nice woods, once on the east side of the second reentrant, but where is that rootstock? Almost up to the clearing. Too far. Go back. There it is. I passed it going by too low. Not sure if the slow time is missing the control or also the up and down.

19 to 20

.630 km 9.195 km 9:07.27 1:39:11.88 14:28.68 min/km 10:47.30 cum min/km

Plan: straightish, catching myself on the third, smallish reentrant. Don't remember much of this leg, except that at the control I was looking for a well, moving slowly, from the north to the south. Amazingly, I found the well, but, oh, the control isn't the well, it's the depression... and there's the depression! Again, I think my speed is slowing because I'm getting tired, I'm taking the straight route, and I was cautious nearing the control. Even so, I didn't realize I was slowing down until I figured the splits. In the woods, I felt like I was keeping a good pace with no major mistakes.

20 to 21

.645 km 9.840 km 7:19.38 1:46:31.28 11:21.21 min/km 10:49.52 cum min/km

Plan: Straight, catching myself on the road. Crossed the two reentrants, and after climbing the spur next to the road, contoured out to the road, above the cliffs. The woods were quite junky and at one point I somehow managed to spring a branch back into my face. Like when you're running along behind someone and they push a branch out of the way, only for it to spring back at you. Still don't know how that could have happened, but it stung for a bit. Tried to keep up a good pace dodging through the green and my split shows I was doing better. That and the control was rather easy to find, once crossing the road and descending to the right of the reentrant.

-- Fritz (fpmenninger@hotmail.com), December 12, 2000.