Spike asked for reports. Here is what I experienced in the forest. Maybe I'll write something about out-of-woods experiences too sometime. I wrote it as if the reader wasn't at the meet. Since this report is rather long, I decided it was best if I made it into a new question. I hope other OKers will describe their runs too, we can each start a new thread!

The day before the relays was run on the Baldwin Hill map in Ashburnham, MA. It was NEOC's A-meet Troll Cup. I decided to use this day to prepare for the relays by looking at the terrain and mapping styles, and for general practice. It is, however, a little bit hard to just sit back and jog when there are others around running the same course. From time to time I found my pace had slipped upwards and I had to reign myself in. In the end I think I held back enough that there was no risk to the common interest. The main problem I had on Saturday was running the long legs. I didn't pay enough attention to the compass as I ran along and so I ended up running farther from the straight line than was necessary. Looking back on the weekend I'm a bit puzzled as to why the relays weren't run on the same map as the Troll Cup. The latter was on excellent terrain while the relays seemed to be on second tier terrain. However, the two maps bordered each other.

Relay day dawned early. I didn't sleep much that night on account of having to think about the relays and, of course, SNORE-kel. I don't think I suffered too much though because the relays are run totally on hype and adrenaline anyway. You don't need to be that well rested. It looked like rain was possible, but stayed dry (but pretty warm and muggy). OK had the Gazebo out anyway and I'm sure it impressed others a lot.

I'll let others describe their runs. I just watched, waited, cheered, ran errands, etc. I had to pay special attention to my heal which was rather painfully beset by a blister. Mary gave me some moleskin and that held it together well enough. It reminded me of my '98 relay debut in which I had to run on bad blisters that formed the previous day at the US classic chumps.

My team was moving along well and we couldn't have asked for a better position as I started the fourth leg. I was within striking distance of the lead and all I had to do was reach out and claim our birthright. OK was counting on me - it was crunchtime. Would Mook fold or would Mook give his all? The answer turned out to be more complicated.

I watched where the early starters on red were heading. When Spike tagged me at the changeover zone I ran in the same direction as they had gone, which turned out to be essentially reasonable, but not necessarily optimal. I was able to run for a few seconds while folding my map before I actually took a look at the first leg. We started a little ways from the actual triangle which may have accounted for some confusion.

The first leg was a relatively long one. Truth be known it was only about 800m long but one of the longest legs on the course. From the start in the fields I headed downhill through white woods to the marshy bottom. Oops! I wasn't paying much attention here... I was way off to the left, some 250m from the straight line. I straightened myself out and headed more or less straight to the control through the woods. Although the woods were white they weren't all that fast. I saw a mixture of pines and deciduous forest all day, some of it was obviously planted. I wasn't done with my carelessness on the first leg... I didn't search for good route choices! I ended up running parallel to and only 50-150m from a trail and dirt road for the last 300m of this leg. Precious seconds were ticking away! There was some guy from USMA near me for a bit on this leg. Then he was behind me. I think he didn't like the pace I was going because he kept getting farther and farther behind. Either that or he realized that the route I was running was completely absurd. By the first control I was alone.

We had a sharp turn west towards the second control. I did look for a route choice here. Straight it was. We ran across relatively bland slopes over to one of a few cliffs. I ran up to the wrong cliff first. Not a lot of time lost, but I should be spiking these things!

The third leg was again relatively long. It was mainly on road and along the edge of a field. Ahead of me I saw another runner from ??? who I knew was in the 4 point relays. I started to catch up to him. He punched at the third control perhaps 10 seconds ahead of me and I think he took a straight approach to the fourth control. I chose to run slightly to the right avoiding a bit more of the green. You couldn't go too wrong here because there was a series of rock walls along the way. I ran to the control from a rock wall corner. The woods were a bit thick. I didn't see ??? again.

Number five was heading south again towards the finish area - we had turned the corner. Red courses don't last that long! Five was a more serious leg. I tried to read the contours along the way but ended up a little off as I approached the control. Six was a short leg to the radio control. I swung left around a lot of green and got a drink of water at the control out of habit. That might not have been necessary even though it was a bit humid.

Seven was a reentrant on the side of a small hill. I ran right sticking to the white woods. I'd hate to think what the dark green was like! I ran through a marsh. That was a mistake. It sure wasn't like a marsh in Sweden. This thing was a mud bog. I retreated to firmer ground and up towards the control. Control eight was another straight route towards a knoll near the top of the hill I ran down from the start. I caught and passed Clem McGrath of DVOA on this leg. Climbing the hill was a real drag. There was a lot of deadfall as I approached the control. Someone had dumped junk all over this area too.

Number nine was a spectator control. A bunch of OKers were there. There was nothing to do but run out to the field and punch. Number 10 took us right by the start area and into the final small loop before the finish. It was another trivial run-n-punch affair.

The second loop was possibly 1.5km. First we ran back down the hill towards a control on a funny lookin' spur shown by a form line. It should have been trivial. I clearly saw what I needed to see - a rock wall and a small stream crossing the rock wall. I headed towards where I thought the spur would be from there. No spur. Or was the very shallow shelf I was on supposed to be the spur? Could I see a control here? No. It was a bit green and I took some looks around. I decided I must have run past the control and looped back. I guessed right and I saw the spur now - an obvious feature. Number 12 was pretty trivial, but before I got there I passed through one more bit of fight and deadfall, on an uphill. I picked my way through and was out in the open heading towards a reentrant in a field around vegetation boundaries and roads. I could have been in the Homeland somewhere. The control was trivial and then we had a run back to the final control across more fields and trails. Still noone on the red course ahead of me. Second place. That's how the day was going to be.

Overall I ran a moderate pace. I had no huge errors, but could I have run fast enough to place first? With no mistakes and a lot harder run, perhaps so. If I had run very hard and that had caused a bad mistake could it have cost second place? Possibly. It is difficult to say that I could have done a lot of different things the day of the race. What I could have done is to prepare myself better - be fitter so that I can run in comfort at a much faster pace - practice in the woods so that I can move smoothly and quickly through the terrain - and train with maps so that I can minimize mistakes.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), April 18, 2000

Answers

The third leg was again relatively long. It was mainly on road and along the edge of a field. Ahead of me I saw another runner from ??? who I knew was in the 4 point relays...I didn't see ??? again.

I think "???" must have been Ernst Linder from UNO (a very good team, I might add). I ran the leg before Mook and on my way to the next-to- last control, I saw UNO's Peter Anderson heading toward the last control. I must have been about 2 minutes behind UNO when I handed off to Mook.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), April 18, 2000.