Possum Trot VII Meet Report

Weston Bend State Park

December 7, 2003

By Eric Buckley

Here's a practice question for any of you who might be taking an IQ test soon:

Find the next value in the series:

Bad, Good, Bad, Good, Bad, Good

A) Bad B) Good C) Depends on how you look at it

The answer, for those not familiar with my bizarre sequence of Trot results is C. This was nothing like the disasters of PT 1 and 3 where I finished an hour behind the leaders. There were no boneheaded errors to spoil an otherwise good run as in PT 5. But, anytime I give away 2 minutes/K over the second half of a race and have to finish walking on a road, the event has to go in the bad column even if the overall result is far better than expected.

Expectations had been lowered due to a broken foot six weeks ago. I had done a fair job of maintaining my fitness via cycling, but I knew that the brutal terrain of Weston Bend would not reward someone who had been out of the forest for the last month and a half. My worst fears were allayed by a decent run in the MoKan champs the day before the Trot. While a 30-minute course in park-like terrain was a far cry from what lay ahead, my fifth place finish (which won the Missouri 40+ title) indicated that I could maintain some pace through the woods.

The day of the Trot dawned with perfect conditions - cool enough to avoid overheating, but not requiring extra clothing. The skies were partly cloudy and visibility was excellent. As we gathered for the mass start, I surveyed the field. As usual, what the start list lacked in size it made up for in quality. Mikell Platt (who's won so many US Championships nobody bothers to count anymore) was here. US 35+ Champ and perennial Trot bridesmaid Michael Eglinski was sporting bib # 1 indicating his top place in the lifetime Trot standings. The next five places in the standings (me, Fritz Menninger, Dave Cozair, Sharon Crawford, and Eric Saggars) were also on hand. Winners of other goat events in attendance included Rob Wagnon and, of course, my nemesis Dave Frei. Nadim Ahmed, Aaron Aaker, Gary Thompson, Jan Ingebrigtsen, and the ageless Orlyn Skrien rounded out the list of contenders.

The start of a goat event is typically a frenetic sprint to the first control as everyone wants to stay with the best navigators. Perhaps it was out of respect for the terrain ahead or perhaps people wanted to use the road run to sort out the complex skip decisions, but nobody felt like pushing it as we moved along en masse to #1. I believe this was the first Trot ever where I reached the first control without going anaerobic. A quick look at the whole course convinced me that skipping 12 was a really good idea. There were quite a few candidates for the second skip, most coming late in the race so I decided I'd wait to make a final decision.

The second leg gave us our first taste of Weston Bend's steep Loess ridges and the big guns started to push the pace. Mikell Platt came up beside me and I decided I could do a lot worse than following him so I upped my effort to stay with him. After we crested the ridge we contoured around the other side to the control site. As usual, Mikell spiked the location on top of the spur and there was a vetting tape there to prove it. Unfortunately, there was no control bag. We looked around and finally saw it down in the adjacent reentrant. The doubling back caused the whole group to bunch up again and there was a big traffic jam at the control. I had to wait about 20 seconds for my turn to punch, but everybody was still in sight, so I didn't panic.

In probably my worst decision of the race, I blindly followed the group down to the trail which meant trudging all the way back up the ridge to 3. While this may have been a good route for those who prefer to blast on trails versus push through the thick stuff, given my fitness, fighting the undergrowth on top of the ridge would have been much better than an uphill trail run. Gary Thompson, who was with me leaving 2 stayed high and popped out just in front of me as I got back to the top of the ridge so no time was lost, but I was breathing pretty hard - an effort I'd pay dearly for later.

The next two legs were uneventful and by 5 a cohesive group had formed consisting of Mike Eglinski, Dave Frei, Nadim Ahmed, Aaron Aaker, Rob Wagnon, and myself. Mikell had chosen to skip 3 and 4 so he was up ahead on his own. Running through the field to 6, I slowed down to take another look at the skip decisions. 12 still looked like the best with either 22 or 24 also being good. I settled on 12 and 22. (Post race analysis indicated that the double skip of 11 and 12 was actually best, but 12, 22 wasn't much worse).

The group stayed together until 8 when Mike decided to skip 9. Dave seemed to take that as his cue to lift the pace again and by the time we got to 9 things were stringing out. Dave continued to push to 10 (made eaiser by the fact that there was an old unmapped trail following the contours), building a lead of about 30 seconds on me by the control. Nadim and Rob were also ahead of me with Aaron right behind.

Leaving 10, Dave went low to pick up the road along the river. The rest of us opted for the safer, but longer, route using the road on top of the ridge. I got to the road first with the others close behind me. Nadim passed me as we approached the control and I got distracted enough that I missed where I had planned on leaving the trail to head down to the control. Nadim's route followed the trail all the way to the notch above the control which was longer than I had wanted to go. The penalty for my inattention was seeing Dave coming up through the notch having already punched.

On the way to 13, Nadim started moving faster, presumably trying to reconnect with Dave who was now clear by over a minute. I stayed close through 13, but then drifted a bit left heading to 14. While this cut out some climb, the extra distance was enough that Nadim had some separation. Rob and Aaron were still in sight behind me, but starting to lose ground.

Having been burned on the safe route to 10, I decided to take the direct line to 15, heading up the trail and then across the top of the ridge rather than taking longer route on the bike path. I think this was the fast route if executed properly, but I lost contact with the map in the thick woods on top of the ridge and ended up 1 reentrant past the control. Nadim came by me, having already punched and Rob and Aaron caught up while I tried to figure out where I was. I had no choice but to relocate so I ran to the top of the bluff and used the trail to attack the control again. The error was over four minutes and I would not see Nadim or Dave again.

Back on the trail along the top of the ridge to 16, I did enjoy the spectacular view of the Missouri River valley. I bobbled 16 slightly, but only lost a few seconds. Aaron and Rob were still close behind me and I was beginning to wonder if I'd be able to shake them. I pushed a bit harder to 17 and when I got to the trail junction near the control, it was a 4-way rather than 3-way as on the map. This should have been a clue to hit the brakes and check off other features, but I took my best guess as to which trail I wanted a blasted on. I didn't go far before I realized that I'd made the wrong choice. Rob and Aaron also realized something was amiss. Rob recovered first and had punched and left by the time I got back to the control. On the way to 18 I couldn't see Rob ahead or Aaron behind. I was finally on my own.

I took a fairly direct route to 19. Apparently, I passed Rob on this leg although I didn't see him. His compass had broken and he says he wandered around a bit. His race went very badly from that point on.

I followed the stream bed to 20, or should I say to the knoll up on the bank where 20 was supposed to be. The control was actually placed on the knoll next to the stream 30 meters away. Fortunately, it was hung high so I spotted it quickly. I'm not sure why PTOC has such trouble getting controls in the right place, but I've done enough of their events that I've just come to expect a few technical mistakes. Normally, this sort of thing drives me crazy, but the Trot is a different kind of race and I've always just shrugged it off.

Leaving 20, both my calves started cramping a bit. I got to the bike path above the stream and settled into a little shuffle, but I couldn't run. Nearing the control, Aaron was catching back up to me. I scrambled off towards 23 as quickly as I could, not relishing the idea of trying to outrun him to the finish. Aaron decided not to skip 22, however, so I was back on my own again. Or was I?

Meeting Mike Eglinski at 23 was the biggest surprise of the day. He was clearly tired and admitted that his skip decisions (9 and 11) had not been the best. Pushing though the thick stuff to 24, we were moving slowly enough that my calves stopped complaining. Once on the trail leaving 24, they once again started to cramp. Mike later told me that if I had pushed ahead of him at this point he might have given up. However, it was I who couldn't run any further. I stopped briefly to rub out the cramps, but they returned as soon as I tried to run again. Once on the campground road, I was able to jog because it was downhill. Mike was about 20 seconds ahead of me. As the road sloped uphill again Mike was doing his best to keep a good pace going. Near the top of the hill he looked back to see me struggling behind and eased up a bit. I was disappointed that I couldn't follow him. I know he's a better navigator than me, but I hate to lose a race on fitness.

I alternated between walking the uphills and shuffling/jogging the downhills for the last two controls. I expected Aaron to catch me (perhaps he was already ahead?) but there wasn't really anything I could do about it. As it turns out, Aaron had trouble around 22 (as did quite a few people; the accuracy of the map was called into question) and Gary Thompson was the next finisher behind me. Ahead of me were Mikell, Dave, Nadim, and Mike.

After the race, Mike reminded me that the day before I had been wondering if I would have to walk the entire event. It's certainly true that given the circumstances, this was a really good result (I had merely wanted to finish in the top 10 to preserve my 2nd place in the lifetime rankings). My foot gave me no trouble and I was running OK until 20. Although 15 was a bad boom and 17 was just plain stupid, my total error was only about 8 minutes, which is close to the 3:00/hour standard I hold myself to. Still, I think I'll call the second half collapse bad because after Bad, Good, Bad, Good, Bad, Good, Bad comes... I'll be looking forward to next year.