With “ants-in-my-pants”, I took a pre-start. A no-brainer since I was up since 3-4 AM, ate at 6 AM, ready to go at 7 AM.
S-1 A little confused when I hit the first little bridge at the halfway to the control. It seemed like I had run pretty far, but the trail wasn’t curving north, and then I saw that the line was crossing blue, so I sorted myself out pretty quickly and continued on to the control.
1-2 Went further on the trail then I realized, so visited another control, the trail, the same incorrect control, then over to mine.
2-3 Found a safe way down and followed the stream to the creek to the control. A controlled rode down on my butt for the first of many times this weekend.
3-4 Up the stream bed to the nose of the very steep spur, and climbed up as carefully as I could using lots of trees and tree roots to grab onto to be safe. Got off of the trail too soon thinking I would miss it otherwise, but it was visible from the trail.
4-5 Picking off trails and streams as I went and was one of the few people I spoke to who noticed the straight line trail. Momentarily confused by the wet spot near the spot I went into the control thinking I was further back, and I didn’t really think I was on a trail. I talked myself out of going further down the trail, and went it, and there it was. Yeah!
6-7 Super nervous about getting into the out of bounds area, but also nervous about going too far out of the way. Paid super close attention to my compass, and there was the control.
7-8 The big error of the day. Got the trail at the junction, said hello to a hiker, and immediately turned right and visited another control. Not mine, went downhill some more, almost to the stream, back to the wrong control, now think I know where I am, convince myself to find the trail, find the trail, then the control. Felt like a big dummy here.
8-9 Thought I was going over the top, but hit the trail and recovered easily.
9-10 Trail to signs where mountain bikers were stopped. Saw 4-6 bikers between 8 and 10. Down the hill on foot and on butt, thought I was going to end up closer to the control, but hit the field instead and sorted myself out.
10-11 Visited all kinds of crappy stuff getting out of the stream bed. Should have stayed in the woods more. No problem otherwise.
11-14 Suck it up and get it done without making any silly errors at the end. Getting through field from 13-14 sucked. Probably much easier later on.
14-F Loved the long, grassy, unlumpy, downhill finish. Flew down it hoping I wasn’t going to hurt myself. I didn’t.
Really enjoyed this course. Hamstring didn’t hurt at all, perhaps thanks to four advil.