42-47 Length, km Climb, m Straight 1.12 +20 (elev. diff.) 1 1.40 70 2 1.24 85 3 1.33 75
47-48 Length, km Climb, m Straight 0.76 +15 (elev. diff.) 1A 1.09 65 1B 1.09 65 1C 1.07 60 2 0.91 55
43-48 Length, km Climb, m Straight 1.54 +10 (elev. diff.) 1A 1.98 70 1B 2.05 75 2 2.06 80 3 2.07 100
There were three distinct routes for Blue 42-47, only one of them went unnoticed. The out-of-the-way route 1 on 42-47 has the advantage of being essentially flat; the climb is very gradual. The course setter seemed to think it was the best route, but there is no data to confirm or disprove the assumption. Many Blue runners took route 2.
On Blue 47-48, route 2 is the shortest, has the least climb by a small margin, and provides the best approach to the control site; however, there are some elements of steep climb, and the approach is guaranteed to be slow, through the green. The course setter favored route 1C as the classic over-and-down choice, but did not have much confidence in defending this option. There was a scary thicket of poison oak on 1C (at the point marked "po"), which slowed at least one competitor down. The mismapped thickets at #48 introduced enough unfairness into the leg times that it does not appear possible to deduce with certainty which route was best, but there is an indication that route 2 was indeed.
On Green 43-48, route 3 went unclaimed in much the same way route 1 did on Blue 42-47. Route 2 does not appear as advantageous as it does on Blue 47-48, so 1B is most likely the best, provided you don't care much about the poison oak. This is confirmed by the runners' accounts.