Pt Pinole Middle (2015-04-12)

Fast but scary race: Lots of gopher holes hidden in the tall grass could easily have caused a sprained ankle but everything went well:

1) Easy start, just look for the right vegetation cluster and find the control hidden behind it.

2) Contour orienteering.

3) Just run flat along the hillside, following the contour lines.

4) Nice compass running.

(These first four controls must have gotten nearly trivial for later starters: I went out at 10:06 as number 2 or 3 in Middle and I could already see a few spots where the grass had been trodden flat, later on there could have been elephant trails from control to control.)

5) My worst control today, I couldn't make any sense of the yellow vs white areas, so I hesitated quite a bit and ended up using the contours to control the attack point. I lost about 20 seconds here.

6) OK

7) Good flow

8-13) OK

14) I considered both going straight or taking the road all the way to the left but ended up with an intermediate route, partly controlled by the areas with the tallest grass cover.

15) Slight left bend in order to get out of the higher grass on the west side of the road.

16) It might have been a few seconds faster to run across the grass in the second half?

17) Transport

Finish) Tried to do a proper finish sprint but was beaten by two others here, my worst leg result:

I was beaten on just 7 of the 18 split times, but I must have faded in the end since 4 of those were the last 3 controls plus the finish. :-(