Orienteering race (Foot) 1:22:31 [4] *** 10.5 km (7:52 / km) +360m 6:43 / km
spiked:9/12c slept:8.0 weight:171lbs
Mid-Atlantic Championship, Oregon Ridge Park, MD. The inaugural use of the new map of Oregon Ridge was quite fun. Francis Hogle did a pretty good job with the mapping and course setting though as with any new map, there were a few things slightly off. I ran Blue since I thought QOC was pretty well represented on Red and I tend to do better in longer events and open woods like those that were predominant in the park. The hardest thing for me was the climb. I didn't feel very good right out of the start. After climbing to #1, I was a bit disappointed to be lower than the start at #3. There were big climbs to #4 and #9 too. After the increased road running that I've been doing, I felt slow through much of the run. I totaled about +4 minutes of errors. Most of this was at #10 where I lost about 3 minutes according to my GPS track. I lost time at #4 and on the Go control too. It seemed to me that the finish placement didn't match-up with what was shown on the map but that didn't cost me much time. Overall, I was happy and mostly pleased with my overall 5th place. Of course some of the Mid-Atlantic regulars didn't run or didn't run Blue. My heart rate during the race registered an average of only 117 but it's likely that this was more of a sign of battery/mechanical failure rather than an actual measure. I know from looking at my GPS track that there were some gaps in the track. See the Split List for more.
Orienteering (Foot) 18:39 [4] *** 2.6 km (7:10 / km) +105m 5:58 / km
spiked:5/7c
Mid-Atlantic Championship, Oregon Ridge Park, MD. QOC had several teams put together hastily. Peggy, Ted Good and I made up one. Peggy started off for us and brought us in in around 3rd or 4th place. I took off with cheers from Tom Strat who was chasing closely behind me. Most of the time I was running near, ahead or behind Sergei Fedorov and Allison Campbell from DVOA. I closed some distance on Sergei in the first two controls and Allison trailed closely behind. Going to #3, I didn't read the map well enough. I could have taken the nice field route that I used in the Blue course to get there fast and easy but instead, I set in to going out the direction that Sergei did. Near the control, I didn't read well enough to understand that the control was behind a junk filled depression. I got behind both Allison and Sergei as I sorted this out. I made-up some ground in the field and then moved ahead on the steep climb to #4. Leaving #4, I didnn't want to drop down too much so I ran up the reentrant before cutting in the direction of #5. Once over the initial ridge, I didn't readajust my bearing enough to account for running up the reentrant. I found myself too high and in the light green. Allison and Sergei were well ahead by the time I got to #5. With that being the case, I again didn't think and got into chase mode. I made-up a lot of distance quickly, then trailed a bit until we got to some trails. I should have left #5 going more directly rather then following both Allison and Sergei down the reentrant to the lake. At the trails, I took a left route around the deep reentrant. Allison followed but Sergei went a lower slightly more direct route the less climb that I didn't see. I got to the control a bit behind Sergei and Allison was right behind me. I figured it'd not be likely that I'd catch Sergei before the finish but going to #7, he must have figured the control to be lower rather than on the side of the knoll. I had a more direct route so I got there just ahead of him with Allison right behind me still. I zig-zagged through the green similar to my finishing route on the Blue course and managed to stay ahead of Sergei and Allison. My sprint in to the epunch and to tag Ted wasn't stellar (I was tired) but it was good enough to have our team in first.
Unfortunately, I didn't give Ted enough of a lead. Perhaps if I made fewer mistakes and had a better route to #6 it would have given him enough of an edge but Vadim Masalkov and Greg Ahlswede were just running too fast. We got third. Ted would have needed around 10 seconds to take second and about 50 seconds if we were to take first. Though we were tired and could improve our physical shape, we had fun. I can see the need to do more speedwork and practice sprints if I'm to make better decisions in races that are this fast.