JWOC 2015 Sprint Distance

     The JWOC Sprint Distance race was a very well designed course, with many route choices that were difficult to anticipate and to choose quickly, the race was challenging even for the best. The first leg was a trap indirectly, which I fell for badly. Starting off with a very easy control, immediately followed by a long leg, I defaulted to trying to figure out my route for the long leg. Once I had a rough idea of what that was, then I looked up to see where I was on my route to number one. Here it took me a couple of seconds to stop, relocate and run back 10 meters to the gap in the fence where I entered my control from.

     I continued to number 2 by quickly exiting back the way that I had entered and began running in the direction of my control. Here I took a right turn up towards a road that would have been more direct if it had not been for the artificial fences that had been put up to block it off. I had to then use an ally to the left to get around this. I then crossed through the field using the two gates, and came to the control to the south. Apparently 90% of the runners used a variant of this route to get the control. The fastest route though, turned out to be cutting straight up through some green to a road that was higher up. I had dissipated that option due to the large number of contours that you had to ascend through green in order to get to the road. 

 

     That summarizes the compilation of my first two mistakes. From there control three was for setting up the next route choice and in that time I tried planning that route choice out.  I was quite set with taking the upper route and almost did, but I ended up analyzing the lower one and picking it in the last couple seconds before I hit the control.  I did a slightly slower variant of the optimal route, but it worked. Along the next few control I was caught up to by an Irish guy who was running a bit faster than me. The only way that I was able to stay ahead of him all of the way into the arena was due to the fact that he kept on making mistakes as I took very sharp turns into alleys or paths that he wasn’t expecting. He lost 3-6 seconds multiple times due to this. 

     After I passed through the arena then I made a number of mistakes all in a row, first I ran to 11 from the right instead of the left, due to the out of bounds hash which I wanted to stay away from.  Next I thought that the entrance to 12 was blocked off from the right (there was a contour connecting the fence) and so I attacked it from the left side which was slower. The next control was more complicated from the right/straight and so I bailed left and came in from the left side losing 3 seconds. Finally I went straight/right to 14 missing the faster route choice from the left. From there I took the correct route to 15 (right) and continued on to finish the course.

Overall I had a fairly bad run with 6 mistakes pushing it over the edge. Moral of the story is; that I am going to have to do more sprint training practices. Fortunately I’m making some new maps in Calgary; unfortunately I am the one who is making them.