Orange was relatively fast, fairly easy running. Small mistake on approach to 10, at the bottom of the creek, wanted to take the trail between the two creeks, and instead went after second creek and then turned east. Much bigger mistake on approach to 12, should have stayed on the trail that would have easily led me to the paved road, and instead got sucked into a more direct route in difficult vegetagion and steep slopes. On a small grassy field next to the paved road, hit my face on a volleyball net, with some friction burn marks. Final approach to 12 was marred by the confusion of seeing too many creeks, and finally figured out that I had to climb up a spur between two creeks.
Red was a long running event, with several long legs that were very runnable. Followed a strange "S" shape route to get to 1, but it seemed easiest, following open land rathern than fighting briar thorns in the woods. For route to 2, choose to go direct, going uphill in thorny vegetation, but I had the clothing to protect me. At final trail, wasn't sure wether to go left or right, and at the end, chose to go right and guessed correctly, as the control wasn't far. The final approach to 3 was a little difficult, as the foliage vegetation really made reatures difficult to recognize, and zig-zagged a bit, and then, voila', got lucky, saw the control at my side at 40 meters distance and zoomed to it. Final approach to 4 was also problematic. Left the straight road right when it started going downhill, and wanted to keep the elevation instead of having to go down and then up again. Stayed at same elevation thinking I would bump right into the control, but instead found a big boulder, and then descended a bit and went closer to the road, and that is when I finally saw the control. For the approach to 5, choose to get to the straight wide trail, follow it to the creek, all downhill, and from there, take a trail that paralleled the creek until close enough to bushwack and bag the control. For 6, chose to find a trail that lead north straight to the small pond. Never found that trail and kept on walking uphill, and at the very end, almost 5 meters before the clearing, saw the side trail. How sarcastic, it probably was right next to me all that time, and I got all cut up by the thorny briar. Nice little pond at 6. For 7, chose the panoramic and aerobic long run. This is were the Solomon SA 3D XCR really shined, with their cushioning back heel, really feels like a traditional running shoe. For 8, saw another runner leaving the powerline trail and cued into the side woods right after him. For 9, the route was fairly fast, most on wide trails, some with crushed gravel. Remembered seeing this control while running Orange trail earlier that day, so knew exactly how to get there. For 10, chose to get down quickly and cross the creek, and then reach the open grassy area and start hiking up the steep hillside. Got into the bushes to spot the boulders easily, saw the first, then the second, a large boulder. I was thinking the control was there (didn't read the clue sheet until a minute later). Saw Mark Malagodi and I thought he was also looking for the control. Went uphill a bit, then looked back, then stopped, then read the clue sheet, and saw it was not on a boulder, so read the map more closely and noticed it was about 15 meters behind the bolder, semi-hidden in the foliage. The course setter, Byron, later explained that he did not expect all this foliage still on the branches at this time of the year, so that control was more difficult than expected. I liked that difficulty. It punished me for not reading the clue sheet. For 11, bushwacked into somewhat thick vegetation, went looking for a faint trail, found it a bit below elevation, then ran it until reaching a couple of creeks that intersected the trail. Did not see the control, and got suspicious, and hesitated a bit, then went forward another 30 meters, and on my side, saw it at 40 meters. For 11, I didn't trust my ankles to bushwack in the rocky terrain and my fatigue was showing, so I chose to go safe, and ran downhill through difficult woods to the paved road below, and after the parking lot and the easy trail, took a faint side trail to gain some elevation, then off into runnable flat-sy woods, and saw the control 20 meters on my side. For 13, nothing remarkable. For 14, I definitely doubted several times if I was in the right location, not seeing the open light of the clearing marked on the straight-line wide trail. Here, the terrain is pretty flat, and nearby the top of the hill the vegetation was still with alot of foliage. For 15, straight run downhill on an easy grassy trail. For 16, ran down the rest of the hill, then took a bearing South a couple of times, and reached the vicinity of the control, but could not see it. I thought it was on the "second" of creeks, and I just could not see it. Then, after studying the map closely, noticed that the purple control circle was covering the blue of a stream, so I understood then that the control was on the "third" creek. The foliage appropriately camouflaged the spring where the control was located. The On-In was long, on a beautiful fall foliage wide trail. Stopped once on trail for 30 seconds of walking, was definitely pretty exhausted, and then again on the last approach on the paved road leading to the lodge parking lot.
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