James makes a mistake...
The leg after the spectator control was probably the most tricky of the entire course.
James made a mistake -- it probably cost him the race.
Mikell's route went slightly south of the straight line. He hit a trail near the control,
and used a couple of distinct bends on the trail as an attack point. He spiked it.
James' route went slightly north of the straight line. He crossed the same trail, but
at a point with no distinct bends. He then turned to the right -- but, the control was
to the left. James saw a distinct reentrant and quickly corrected his mistake.
James told me he lost 30 seconds on this control. Fritz Menninger and
I tested his route. Based on our tests, James would have lost at least 30 seconds (just
covering the ground cost 30 seconds -- if he spent any time stopping or slowing down
it would cost more time).
I wondered why James made this mistake. I don't know. But, I have some ideas.
- He seems to have run hard in the first part of the course (he must have to build up a lead over Mikell
and Mark). Maybe he ran a little bit too hard, putting himself in oxygen debt and making it
hard to make decisions?
- He probably should have stopped when he hit the trail (and
turned to the left to find the trail bends to use as an attack point). But, stopping is tough
on a short-course. It is probably the toughest thing to do on a course like this -- anytime
you are not moving you feel like you are wasting time. But, in this case it probably would
have been a good thing to do.
You can go to rest of the course or see
a GIF animation that simulates the
routes that James and Mikell took to the fifth control.
Michael Eglinski
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