Score-O in the South Umstead (Dec 13)

As Ron nicely put it, when asked about the course: "it was moist" :)

It was indeed. And cold too. Let me tell you, after working in Mexico for the last three weeks, it was quite a shock to me. I was also completely out of shape (12 hours working days and a lot of real Mexican food do that to people :-)).

Fortunately, there was 45 min option for the Score-O - exactly what I needed.

My plan was very simple. First of all I decided to warm up by using the road and attack 4 controls north of it (66, 74, 75 and 69). Then take 72 and, if time permits, take 73, 77 and 68 on the way back. It worked fine. I didn't have time to take 77 and 78, but it was OK.

Here is how I ran:

#54, 55 and 56: took them during my warm-up run :-)

#66: went north watching buildings on my left, then reached the re-entrant and proceed without going to the bottom, but using the western slope. It got pretty steep around the control, so I was glad I didn't go down initially.

#74: crossed the re-entrant and walked up the hill. Then ran down the re-entrant without crossing the spur (because it was full of fallen trees) and went up the other re-entrant to the control.

#75: simply ran along the creek all the way to the control

#69: walked up the hill (as it turned up, too far), missed the re-entrant, but quickly realized it when saw the road gleaming further south, so turned north, down the re-entrant and to the control. Then went back to the road.

#67: there I checked the time. I had 22 mins left. It was clear that I wouldn't be able to take 67 as well as 73/77/68, so I had to choose. I chose 5 extra points :-) and went for 67 with an idea to take only 73 on the way back. Used the road till the bend by the control and took the control from there.

#73: Went back to the road and ran/walked up the hill using the road. From there turned south to the very top of the hill and followed it to the control.

#53: returned back to the road and raced to the finish. Realized that I had an extra minute and made a little detour to take 53, then finished with 44:17 and 114 points.

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



Thanks to Artem for organizing the event! It was exactly what I needed :-)