August 22 in the Bond Park

It was very gratifying to see the Bond Park map finally used in an event. It was the biggest mapping project I undertook (so far) and I was glad to see the map being used.

Patrick set two good (and unusual) courses in the south east portion of the map, so north west portion wasn't used at all (a part of it wasn't even printed). It means that the map is big enough to potentially handle two sprint events in one year! What was unusual about the courses is the way controls were hidden, Patrick did really good job hiding them :-) In fact, I don't remember such degree of "control invisibility" in any of the events we had. But all controls were set accurately. Josef had some valid complains about 3-4-5 "dog leg" on the course A, though, I personally used different routes on this stretch. The only other control I didn't like was #5 on the course B. This control was set right by hardly visible barb wire. Both Tanya and Michael got caught into this barb wire while approaching the control. IMHO, it was too dangerous a place to set a control in.

Anyway, I liked both courses, so thanks to Patrick to setting them up!

Just like 2 weeks ago I ran the first course significantly faster than the second one. 17 mins comparing to 20 mins. I suspect that I might have won the first course and got 4-5th place on the second. Again, I didn't have enough stamina for the second course and again I made a costly mistake on it. A pattern? Maybe.

Here is how I ran:

Course A

#1: used the road, cut a corner at the end, then ran by the shelter and went down to the creek; didn't see the pit (it was truly invisible!), went right a bit then returned back and followed the creek to the pit.

#2: straight, crossed the road and went up the re-entrant

#3: back to the road and used it all the way to the control

#4: back to the road, cut to the re-entrant with the dry dicth from the curve and followed the ditch to the pit, looking to the right so I wouldn't miss it.

#5: went south to the bridge, continued up the hill and saw the control on the right

#6: south to the field, alond the field and used the trail, then down to the re-entrant

#7: to the field and around it, cut to the trail and used it for a bit, then went to the cutting and from there to the creek junction

#8: returned back to the cutting and used it till I crossed a small dry dicth, then went south loiking for the dry dicth with the control, found it and followed it to the control

#9: back to the cutting and used it to get to the trail, used trail to reach the control

#10: used the cutting to get around the green area

and from there to the field and used trails all the way to the finish. It took me 17:21

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




Course B

#1: through the forest to the parking lot and attacked from the corner of the parking lot

#2: to the field and to the control from course A, from there repeated my route to the #2

#3: used the trail until I saw creek on the right and went down to it

#4: did not cross the creek but somehow thought I did!!! so when I reached the cutting I thought the creek is on my left, didn't see the control and went toward the supposed creek to attack from there... Crossed the dry ditch and only then started to realize what happened. Returned back and ran toward the real creek this time, took the control on the other side. I think I lost about 90 seconds there.

#5: used the cutting to get to the creeks junction, crossed the creek there, went up to the dry dicth and followed it to the control. Did notice the barb wire because I was looking for it.

#6: went back to avoid the wire and crossed the creek again at the junction, went to the trail and used it to get to the eastern corner of the field, went up to the field and ran by its side and further on using the trail to reach the control

#7: basically retraced my steps from course A (now thinking about it - I retraced my steps several times on the B course, apparently the courses were too similar, it could have been avoided)

#8: down to the road, through the intersection and to the re-entrant

#9: this time it was easy, used the road until I saw a wide road shoulder in front and went south across the cutting and creek, then followed the creek to the pit

#10: up to the shelter, then used the road and the field as much as I could, then went to the forest to the control.

and straight to the finish. Total: 20:34.

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