Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Garry's route

Garry wasn't far behind Jeremy on the Brown course. He also drew his route and did an analysis of his race. Hope you can gain some tips from reading how the good guys approach different controls. Here' Garry's route:
And here's Garry's analysis:
I was pretty happy with my run and didn't make too many mistakes.  At
the moment I am down on fitness and could feel it in my legs on the long
climbing legs during the second half of the course.

I tended to use my compass quite a lot. I also focussed on reading the
contour detail. The vegetation was generally usable. However, I think
you had to make sure you'd identified the specific vegetation feature
from a long way off. In other words, when you were on top of the
vegetation it was very difficult to make sense of where you were.

2) I probably should have taken a more direct route to the road. It was
tough in that long grass.
3) I didn't push hard enough to my attach point - the boulders to the
left of the embankment.
4) I lost contact with the map and went left through the vegetation for
some reason. Only managed to relocate when I saw the road.
5) I decided to run hard on the road - tired of that long grass.
6) A minor mistake - I should have headed for the road to the right of
the enclosed fence.
7) Used my compass here. Focussed on my contour height, being careful
not to drop down. Then round the bottom of the light green. I couldn't
really make sense of the scattered trees, but watched carefully for
boulders.
9) I struggled to "feel" right here. I made sure I got to the right of
the gully. I should probably have run down the middle of the gully.
Because I didn't do this I missed the re-entrant and had to relocated
off the path and dry ditch.
10) Used my compass and read the contours, passing to the right of the
form-line area. Vegetation was clear from the angle I was approaching.
11) I got caught by the boulder cluster (which I circled!) I then went
further up. I felt the boulder was much closer to the vegetation than
depicted.
12) Attacked the wide road. I was trying to use the end of the
embankment as my attackpoint. It definitely carries on far further than
shown on the map. Eventually I turned up and climbed the embankment!
Because I was quite a bit further along it took a bit of time to
reconcile the vegetation.
13) I ran too long in the grass. I should have made straight for the
oval track.
14) After the T-junction, I aimed to hit the small path before the nice
bend, from which I attacked. Fine nav let me down as I didn't realise
the control was well over the erosion gully.
15) I thought it would be easier to attack the clearing from the right.
Worked hard to get up that hill (and finally won my only split of the
race!)
16) & 17) A little too tentative to both, but wanted to make sure.

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