Overall I'm very proud of this run- I ran under 7 min/km, which honestly hasn't happened while orienteering in a while- at WOC i couldn't even make it under 8 min/km, so it's good to see I improved in that sense (and yeah, I know the terrains were different, but I put in a similar amount of effort at WOC and in this sprint, and this sprint went significantly better).
Diana beat me by 10 seconds though, which is frustrating- part of me is glad that I was so close behind her, but part of me is frustrated because I made a 20-30 second mistake (and a very dumb one) on 15. Plus, there were so many other places I could have ran a little harder and caught up those 10 seconds, but I mean that's all part of orienteering. Next time, I'll push a bit harder and actually catch up to Diana-
http://www.dvoa.org/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=...#
1) I was surprised at how many controls were around the area where my 1 was, thank goodness I checked the code. By just glancing at my map I couldn't really tell where behind the wall the control was, since the wall was gray, so I figured it would be safer to run behind the wall. I think I might've lost 1 or 2 seconds from hesitating and not knowing exactly where the control was on the wall and running at a curve rather than a straight line.
2) I ran to the north of the fenced off areas becasue I didn't want to cut through the woods. I honestly thought that the control was on the other side of the corner, which was still an inside corner but on the other side of the north-south hedge, so I ran a little loop, but not bad. Probably lost 1 or 2 seconds again, but maybe not, because if I went the other way I could've lost those seconds in the woods- depends what the woods were like in that spot.
3) I just curved around the building, completely ignoring the trails- it would've taken me longer to try and figure out which path I was on than the time I might have lost by running on the grass rather than on the path.
4) I just gunned it to the north tip of the field and pushed through the woods, came out a little too much to the right but it was easy to correct. Apparently it was very worth it, I won the split- I still think I lost maybe 2 or 3 seconds from getting out of the green too much to the right.
5) There was a guy from West Point exiting the control at the same time as me, and he headed norh to the field, and I kind of subconsciously followed him at first, since I originally wanted to follow the river but when I realized i was going to the field, I figured that I'd just follow the edge of the field to the path, and then from the intersection I took an estimation (not really a bearing, just kinda guessed) to 5. I just ran between the trails and knew I'd see the control since the woods were relatively open and at this scale, i couldn't miss it in that small area. I probably lost up to 5 seconds from going so around.
6) Messed this one up a little bit, probably costing me 3-5 seconds. I originally checked if there was a gao between the buildings where the control was, but I forgot to check if there was a gap in the building in front of the control too, so I didn't notice that the buildings were connected. Wasn't too bad of a mistake, I just probably stared into the map longer than necessary but not long enough to notice I was wrong.
7) Ran north of the fenced off area and then just ran to 7 which was easily visible at the tree.
8) There was a trail of people running to the same control (at least one other person in the trail was on red, too), so we all just booked it to the building.
9) Ran around the west side of the building since there was a strip of field, and I figured it was going to be shorter.
10) Just booked it to be honest. Noth much thought going on.
11) Returned to the path, ran up it to get out of the wooded area, and than spotted the tent the control was behind and ran. I thankfully checked my map and saw the control was behind the green spot just across the path from the tent.
12) Saw the shed thing on the field, so I ran towards that and then ran straight to the edge of the wall since I checked the description and saw the control was inside the corner.
13) Ran on the road SW and then turned NW after the end of the wall, and then I could see the area of white woods and the control in it, which was 13.
14) Ran towards the picnic pavilion to the west, then ran on the trail (not on the map) through the yellow, crossed the green on the trail on the map, ran around the top of the green on the yellow field and straight to the control. I don't think I really lost any time, except for on route choice probably.
15) yeeeeah whoops, didn't check my compass and ran to the green spot south of the distinct tree 15 was on. I thought that tree was suspicious- the control was really well hidden behind it. I also slowed down at this point because I was getting really tired and the rough open was not going well- I kept getting caught in the grass and in thorns.
16) Booked it to the path asap. The rough open sucked and I couldn't properly run through it, I knew I'd save time by going on the path. I saw the control while I was coming up to the trail, but I was still looking at each of the exercise machines to just check that I don't miss the control.
17) Ran on the path, and as soon as the field to the left ended, I was looking into the woods and was prepared to run in. I saw the control from the path so I ran in and got it.
18) Ran on the path to the north of the control and ran over to the boulders 18 was on. I saw it very quickly.
19) Ran down to the path to the intersection where the control was on.
20) Ran to the control as straight as I could, ignoring the path but keeping off of the rough open.
Finish) booked it