Trekking race (orienteering) 1:10:39 [4] 6.04 km (11:42 / km)
shoes: Speed Cross
I made the almost 3 hour trek to the Tri-Cities area for a day of orienteering.
There wasn't any snow in KW, unlike down in the banana belt as was the case when I left home in the morning. But I brought my microspikes, just in case!
These O meets use a handicap system based on age and gender. Your handicap tells you how many controls you can skip in the "box" (or in this case, "boxes"). Because it uses your age at the end of 2016, my number was 4. So in a "box" of 7 controls, I got to skip 4. That just seems weird to me. Firstly, in golf, your handicap represents how well you play, not your age. I suck at golf, so my handicap is huge. My husband plays very well (years of practice does that!), so has a much, much lower handicap than I do. No reflection of age or gender there. Secondly, I knowingly skipped controls, yet finished well within the allotted time (unlike a rogaine or score-O where I am accustomed to trying to get as many as I can while trying to make it to the finish without going over the allotted time). I kept feeling like I was forgetting something!
Anywho.....we were given our maps with enough time to make a plan, then led out to the starting point in the woods. It was a mass start, but since racers all had different plans as to which control(s) to get in which order, I only had to wait in line to punch at one control. I did G B E, and came across a "random" one that wasn't on our map (there was a novice course set in amongst the northern controls). Then it was off to the numbered controls, 1-7. Mostly straight forward (literally) trail and road running. The second box was next and I did a b e. I overshot e and found it on my way back to my last-known-position. Then back to 7, and on to 8-12. This was along side the Grand River, which has very steep banks in this area. So this flatlander did lots of climbing!
As usual, kilometres 2-5 felt better than #1, and I warmed up nicely as I got going.
1:5000 scale map.