Sprints in the North Umstead

I like sprints.

Many controls, no consecutive long legs, in fact, no long legs at all, short. My main strength (ability to read and follow intricate features) is emphasized while my main weakness (lack of physical strength and endurance) is not a big factor. As a result, I usually do well in sprints. And this time wasn't an exception.

OK. Let's start from the beginning. The weather. Well, comparing to the last meet, the weather was perfect. Still a bit too humid and warm, but, hey, it's the end of June in North Carolina!

Michael decided to stay in bed, but Tanya and I were at the start shortly after 9 AM. Some people were already finishing!

A decided to go on the longer course first and get it out of the way before I get too tired.

Sprint A

#40: down the re-entrant till I found and punched (!) the wrong control. Oh, boy. Looked at the control number, went further down and took the right one.
#41: compass bearing straight to the road, then noticed a re-entrant on the left, crossed the road and went up till I hit the dry ditch with the control.
#42: very easy, compass bearing right to the control.
#43: didn't go all the way up the hill, but instead went east, noticed the dry ditch and then the re-entrant (my attack point). Went north-north-east, got distracted by the wrong control (#51), stayed there, rested and gathered my thoughts, then went further north to the #43 (jumping ahead, I visited #43 three more times later on!!!).
#44: compass bearing aiming to the left of the control, crossed the creek, went to the right and took it (and, yes, it was set a bit off, but I noticed it only when I was picking up this control).
#45: easy, over the hill to the re-entrant
#46: decided not to gain any elevation and went down to the creek there. It proved to be a good decision.
#47: intentionally went for #41 and used it as an attack point
#48: crossed the re-entrant, went down to the road and then straight to the control.
#49: walked (tired already) up till the trail, then used the trail to get to the control.
And finish.
It took me 24 minutes and 48 seconds to complete this course (2.4 KM) and I won. I hadn't made any significant mistakes, though it could have been faster if I could avoid walking and resting.

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge. Blue - mostly running, yellow-brown - mostly walking, red dots - resting.


Sprint B

After I finished the sprint A, I rested for about 20-30 minutes and went off to the second course. This one proved to be harder for me: mostly physically, plus I made a few mistakes. Though I won this sprint too, looking at the splits, I won only one of ten legs there. I clearly wasn't the fastest runner out there, I was just being more consistent.

#50: (the only leg I won) used the trail and crossed the re-entrant very close to #49, thus avoiding a lot of green, then went east to the control.
#51: made good route decision but didn't executed it well. I did not want to use the big re-entrant with fallen trees and stuff, so I went to the small camping area instead (had to walk uphill occasionally), then used the road to go around the green area and shot for the control from there. Till that point I was doing good. Then I saw control #52 on the left and went to check the number (stupid, huh?). Of course, it was the wrong control. OK, a few yards further and I saw control #43 and, yes, went to check the number again (very stupid). And, finally, after I visited ALL controls in the area I allowed myself to proceed to the one I was actually looking for.
#52: well, I just went from there, so it wasn't hard to find it again
#53: compass bearing from #43, nothing special.
#54: my second mistake. Took compass bearing, but veered to the right and ended up not quite sure about where I was. I knew that I missed the re-entrant, but couldn't decide whether I went left of it or right of it. Went a little bit more to the right, didn't see the re-entrant and correctly decided that I could not have gone so much left of it. So went to the left and took the control.
#55: went down the hill a bit and then along the slope noticing small re-entrants till I got to the dry-ditch with the control in it.
#56: went west, then along the slope, on top of the #42 and down to #56 (people got stung by bees there, Tanya too, but I didn't notice any).
#57: to the road, then used the road to reach the re-entrant (attack point) and went straight to the control.
#58: tiredly walked uphill, then down to the gully
Finish: again tiredly walked up, then ran a little bit to the finish.

It took me 22 minutes and 43 seconds to complete this course (2.0KM)

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge. Blue - mostly running, yellow-brown - mostly walking, red dots - resting.


All in all, very good day. Huge thanks to Josef, Ken and Terese for organizing the event. The only bad news is that it looks like I will miss July 19 sprint. I wish it would be on Sunday next day, but, oh well.