Orienteering race 2:10:49 [3] 9.4 mi (13:55 / mi) +430m 12:11 / mi
shoes: New Balance MT 910 sz 9
Blue Hills Traverse. I have done many of these (around 20) but this one appeared to be different from the most recent ones, except a couple of controls that I recognized - I was surprised when Jeff told me that many of the controls were "recycled" from not too long ago. I guess the new start area and the last 4 controls leading to the new venue gave it a different feel. It was warm during the first few controls, then turned dark and rained for a while and quickly thereafter, it cleared out with a brisk wind, which was great - no foggy glasses and the temperature drop invigorated me.
I was with Tim and intermittently with Aaron which made for a fun run: we all navigated and fed off each other. During the second half I used the occasion to experiment with my magnifier, by zooming in on the control location usually in the middle of a leg and tried to memorize what I saw. That enabled me to attack about 5 of the controls in the middle of the course with confidence (otherwise known as spiking).
Navigational Errors: Drifted W on 3 (alone), but was able to correct (45 s); misread 6 and looped around looking for a renentrant (45s); hesitation to 12 - confused halfway about the trails (30s), - loved the 12 - 15 short leg sequence, but then did a 180 out of 15 (1 min), to 19: drifted too far to the right before hitting the trail but corrected ok. (30 s). The rest was fine except the guessing game to 23/24 (map unreadable). I also was fighting hamstring cramping on my left (problem) leg, so ended up trotting behind Tim on these legs. Our pace was however slowing and that helped me recover from cramping near the end. I ended up beating Tim: I had an advantage to find the finish since I had warmed up around the scout camp. I ended up in fourth place about 20 minutes behind the winner. Not bad
This turned out to being a very enjoyable event, and the indoor facility was a big bonus. Thanks to the Saegers for organizing it again!