What follows is a blow-by-blow critique of Spike's routes and route choices for the SMOC A-meet April 28-29, 2001. It is based on the routes Spike drew on his map and scanned for others to view. I am going to try to criticize and compliment his routes without the contamination of much feedback from Spike. Of course, I will not always be right in my assumptions, but then it wouldn't be fiction, and therefore no fun!

Let's start out looking at the first part of the map.

Start to 1: There is a little extra ink around the start triangle. I'll assume that is a "slip of the pen". Spike's route takes him around a lot of green as well as up and down. He has some trails to run. Noone would go very straight, however. Noone would use trails to the right of the line, so what range of route choices did Spike have? Not a very wide range, I'd say. The approach to the control is somewhat difficult, but at least you can't run past it very far if you miss. Spike ran efficiently and straight.

1 to 2: This looks like a boom. Spike was probably trying to avoid the up and down of a straight approach to the control and wanted to run along the ridge between the 2 depression areas. That meant running upslope at an angle, but Spike misjudged that and ended up running around a loop. It is difficult to say how soon Spike noticed his mistake. It looks like it must have been after the initial climb since the best recovery from the top of the climb is to head back west and follow what was his initially chosen route.

2 to 3: Spike chose to avoid a lot of green, but he could have avoided more by taking a route to the left of the line, staying ~200m left of the line through much of this leg. This one was Spike's call. The control shouldn't been too difficult here, but if Spike was using this long leg to run really hard, he should probably slow down a bit.

3 to 4: Not that I can read the scan very well, but this could be more difficult. A slightly slower route would have been to go to the top of the hill just W. of the control, and use that as an "attackpoint". Spike didn't need to do that.

4 to 5: The control is somewhere near the top of the hillside. You can use trails to climb early or climb up the hillside while inside the control circle. Spike chose the faster route. Since I can't read the map, I will assume that Spike did the right thing.

5 to 6: Here Spike was presented with a route choice. By this time (2nd day of the meet), Spike knows the terrain quite well. He knows whether to run straight or around the big sequence of hills and depressions. It looks like there was trail/road most of the way on the route Spike picked. It sure made the orienteering easy!

6 to 7: A situation similar to the previous leg. This control should be easy, but Spike has already looked ahead to the next leg, and it could be another story...

7 to 8: No trails offer an advantage, speed or otherwise. Spike must read his way in carefully to this control. If the woods weren't too thick, it isn't a really big issue.

8 to 9: It is unlikely that Spike would have any problem finding this control from inside the circle, but there are places to run astray and lose seconds while he's on the way over there.

Let's continue on with the second half of the map, shall we?

9 to 10: The control-picking is almost over, but Spike needs to knock off one more. Spike correctly takes a route over the tops of knolls. (Old men sometimes like to "contour around" on these types of legs as if the slightest increase or decrease in elevation were something to be avoided like Hendra virus.)

10 to 11: Time to stretch out those legs! Spike's route and the route along trails and fields closer to the line look roughly equal. If there be horses, however, the narrow trails can be ... well ... let's just say some trails are faster than others. Either route would require some care getting to the control, but plenty of space to run hard before getting there. Spike uses a distinct hilltop to check his approach to the control.

11 to 12: Perhaps a bit difficult. Spike runs quite straight, which suggests the navigation isn't too tough. The visibility may be quite good.

12 to 13: Wow! This coursetter isn't much for including a lot of variety! I suppose that's preferable to gratuitous controls in the fight. Spike will have to be careful here.

13 to 14: By this time, Spike is probably getting a bit tired. Running along the sides of hills, probably picking his way around the green areas is starting to get tiring. I bet Spike is glad he has been training well this Spring! If he pushes himself hard, Spike can gain back time on that bloody russian and pick up a medal. This control probably didn't present too much trouble to Spike.

14 to 15: I don't think you can go anywhere but straight here. Spike handles most of this like a pro, but I'm curious about the wiggles in his line. Why isn't Spike running straight or to the trail just right of the line when he exits control 14? Is it a boom? There's no way that Spike was heading over to the trail to the left of the line! In any case, Spike straightens things out and his approach to the control is one for the history books.

15 to 16: Spike makes this control pretty easy by running down the spur from the hilltop.

It looks like we'll have to go back to the first part of the map again. The end is near but the fun is just beginning!

16 to 17: The issue isn't finding the control, it's finding an efficient route out to the fields, and then fending off the hordes of white course/ROTC folks who are standing around trying to learn how to use the punch once you get there. It appears to me that there may be a trail underneath Spike's line. If so, there's no question that Spike did the right thing. Even if there isn't a trail here, Spike probably did the right thing anyway.

17 to Finish: The run to the finish is long. Run Spike run!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), May 01, 2001

Answers

Mook's fictional account of my race is quite good. I'll add a few comments.

To 1: What looks like a slip of the pen is actually the route I took. When I turned my map over, I took a few jogging steps down the trail then planned to head more-or-less straight toward the control. I started into the thick forest but quickly decided it was too thick. So, I went back through the start area and headed into the more open forest.

To 2: Mook's analysis of my boom was pretty much right on. My split for the leg was 2:48. I'm guessing I lost a bit over a minute.

To 5: I caught sight of the control after about half the leg. It pays to try to look ahead as far as you can. Swampfox used the trails and came at the control from above. I believe he boomed.

To 6 and 7: I used the trails even though the straight routes are probably faster if executed well. In general, my O' strategy is to take safe routes and only a very few risks. I also like to use trails when I'm getting tired because I think the tiredness slows me down relatively little on a trail compared to in the forest.

To 14: It is hard to see on the scan, but a lot of my route is on trails. The first third of my route is on an "indistinct trail" then I cut across a hillside to more trails.

To 15: Mook wonders about the wiggles in my route. I was running along a new (un-mapped) moutain bike trail. I should have left it sooner, but running on the nice trail felt good. On the first day of the event there were a lot of unmapped mtb trails to deal with.

To the finish: I pushed myself reasonably hard. But, I wasn't moving fast. I'd pushed hard on the way to 17 and my legs were pretty dead by the time I reached the finish. I'm glad I pushed, though, because I took 3rd place overall by just 3 seconds.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), May 01, 2001.