from Mikell Platt's training log on attackpoint.org

Sunday Dec 3
Orienteering race 2:16:00 [4]
Possum Trot--time includes warmup, though matter how long anyone took to warmup, I doubt they were warm when the race started. It was cold again (I think Dick N. announced the official race temperature as 15F.) Though not quite as cold as last year. I ran a pretty good race with no misses, though there were a couple spots in the second loop where it felt like I was in danger of losing race rhythm. At one point while I was map reading and running across a field, I stepped into a deep, vertical gophur hole, and was probably lucky not to have hurt anything there.

At the start of the race, the obvious route to me was straight ahead out of the little field we were in and down a narrow trail that headed more or less in the direction of the control. It sounded like only a few people chose the around routes to either side, so that meant the whole pack converged onto the trail; I managed to get onto the trail early enough to only have a few people in front of me. When we left the trail to go in for the control, we had to cross a little stream before taking the control and I by the time I was across to the other side, a few people were a little ahead, and still moving down the valley. I started to go with them but then thought that it seemed we should have gone far enough, and so I stopped to take a look behind me, and spotted the control and took it first.

We could skip one control per loop (one loop on the first map, then a map exhange for the second loop) and the first skipping decision was at hand. I got up out of the control, led out toward #2, and then stopped when the forest ended at a point of no return: either continue on to #2 or else turn left and head for #3. It can be tough to skip so early without having a chance to study the later skips carefully, and I stopped to take another look at #2 to make sure it was the one I wanted to skip, and I also wanted to see what some of the other runners might do. When the next few runners came up and then kept going for #2, that made up my mind, and I opted to take my chances right there and headed on off to #3. I could tell by sounds others were coming along with me, but I didn't know who or how many, and at that point it really didn't matter either.

From #3, I opted to head uphill out of the control and take an around route to stick to open fields, and I was first to #4, but I could hear rustlings in the forest meaning that runners taking the direct route were almost there and that the routes must have been pretty close in time. I made an identical choice to #5, and this time when I punched I couldn't hear anything, nor was anyone in sight on the route I had taken.

I was alone the rest of the race. Occasionally I would see other runners, but I could tell they were behind, on their way to other controls. What I couldn't be sure of though was what had happened to the other runners who hadn't skipped at #2, and whether or not they might have moved ahead on the later likely skips, nor did I take any other looks at those skips to try to tell if they might have been better after all or not.

By about a third of the way through the second loop, I had seen enough little patches of clean frozen sleet/ice crust to start to believe I was in the lead, and the longer I went without seeing any contrary indications, the more that feeling grew.

It's interesting to me that I gained about 5 minutes on Eric Buckley (who finished 2nd) from about #3 to the map exchange--a distance of maybe about 5 kms or so--but gained only 2 minutes over the 8 km second loop. Eric said he was running strong over the last loop. Maybe I slowed down also? We took the same skip on the second loop too, so it wasn't that.

Warming up, I ran around and took the opportunity to look into the woods in a couple of spots, and didn't like what I saw. In fact though, the woods were just the usual typical KC crud--on the whole not bad to get through once leaves are down (and very thick when leaves are up, and you better be hardened the frog up if you're going to venture out in them during summer), however laced with enough occasional thorny vines, briars, and multiflora that emerging unscathed is impossible. I think this Possum Trot set a new personal best in terms of achieving the higly desired, post-race "hamburgered legs" look.

It was a really fun race though, with the largest crowd ever and enough strange faces that there was no way to tell how the race might go. The map was excellent and a real pleasure to use--every detail I wanted to see was mapped just the way I would have it, and that in turn made it easy to stay in contact the whole way around.

The course was also excellent with a good variety of legs and lots of route choices that made it very different from the style of orienteering that I get back home.

Overall, it was the best Possum Trot I've been to and indeed one of the best races of the year--gets a 10! Many thanks to Dick Neuberger and Mike Shifman, and all the others that helped make the race possible.