Click here for my Mid-Atlantic Champs '05, Nolde, M21-45 map.

I'm defending Mid-Atlantic Champ, but I wasn't too optimistic about a repeat. Last year's race was one of those anomalies. This year's race was pretty good, tho disappointingly slow. I guess I'm still pretty banged up. I felt like I was running about an 8 minute pace, but ended up 10min/k. I'm not sure why. Booms were under 120 seconds total. It felt like it should be 8 minute terrain for me, or even faster. Guess I'm getting old.

Map was greener than it shows. I've in the past had arguments with Vladimir's veg mapping, and today's green, especially the slash, was spread much wider than mapped, pretty much everywhere. I also noticed trail grading off (by two levels IMHO in one place), and this is disappointing for a new map. Green blobs in white had also spread much wider than mapped. This stuff didn't cost me too much time -- only the mis-mapped slash around #5 confused me a bit. The map is actually a year old, so perhaps some stuff has grown. If true, it doesn't auger well for the area. The white woods, OTOH, are really nice.