Orienteering (Foot) 1:01:34 [4] **** 4.6 km (13:23 / km) +245m 10:34 / km
spiked:11/13c slept:8.0 weight:186.5lbs
QOC: Prince William Forest Training Weekend. I only went out for the night-o. I had been hedging on doing the Long Advanced course, but was leaning toward the Short Advanced course. With slow traffic the whole way there, I settled comfortably for the Short Advanced course. Knowing the area and the likelihood of error with as much green as there was, I it made sense. I was confident going out at 8pm, that I'd be back in less than 2 hours and that I might be cutting it close on the longer course, with it being 3K longer. Though I messed-up at #3, my fears were unfounded.
However, starting out for #1, I started after Miles, whom I gave about a minute head-start. It was almost all a trail run to get across the creek and to the first control. I caught Miles just at the trail bend where one should leave it and get into the woods. I tried to get around where I saw it was thickest, but didn't really succeed. Once through the green, I had to hustle to beat Miles to the control.
Even on the way to #1, I was feeling like the contours were printed too lightly. It might have just been my eyes or the very bright light I was using making it hard to read. Going to #2, the difficulty seeing the contours was worse for me. I simplified by picking out the reentrant midway, and the spur just before the control. My bearing was pretty good, so I hit the control pretty nicely.
For #3, I crossed the stream and then the broad reentrant as I kept close to a bearing. Over the ridge, I was on target and I descended almost along the leg line. I ended up missing the control by being to the left of it--if anything, I had been concerned about being on the right of it. There was more green around than it appeared to have been mapped. I got well past the control, into a broad and whiter reentrant. Again it was hard for me to see the contours, and the 4-5 leg line obscured part of a reentrant line. Seeing others ahead and knowing I'd gone too far I cut down this broad reentrant. The guy who'd been following me turned with me. I was headed back toward #3, but we saw #4 and ran to it. From there it was easy to hit #3. From my GPS track, I lost 4:30 minutes.
I put some distance on the guy who'd been following me, by running back to #4 pretty well.
I ran straight off to #5. Again, it'd been hard to read the contours and even more so with the green. However upon crossing the stream, I realized I was above the stream junction, and I went right to the control from there. Some others were converging from on right but I got there first.
This was a cool leg with a lot of contour detail on the way to #6. Forced to simplify, I knew all I had to do was to reach the ridge and follow that down. The ridge was green on top so I went do the far side and then south to the control.
I was feeling more confident at this point, and the woods were more open going to #7. I ran fairly straight and put some distance on someone who was tailing me. However, it turned out that I was also in the process of being caught. I thought a guy whom I been dropping was catching me again, but after I got to the control, it turned out to be John Torrance. The leg wasn't that hard. I just had to hit the stream and cross the 3 small reentrants--I spiked it.
I ran straight again (still not really knowing it was John Torrance whom was running along nearby) toward #8. John had seemed to drift more left (south) than I had, but he was running faster. He corrected, as did I a tiny bit. I didn't see him punch but I saw him leaving. I guess we both spiked it.
I went the low route to #9. The marsh extended closer to the hill than it seemed to be mapped. I contoured around the last spur and into the reentrant with the control. Someone ahead was just leaving as I got there.
For #10, I paused to read the leg and the someone ahead pulled ahead. He was staying in the reentrant, but I decided I'd climb out for better running, and run along the edge of it. I hit the green south of the control, so I cut through it and into the reentrant. For a few seconds, I'd confused control #11 on the map with control #10--fortunately, the final attack was similar. Once I hit the reentrant I cut right. This was reinforced soon after by seeing the guy I'd seen at #9. We both saw the control shining through the green and went around to hit it pretty well. After getting there, I realized the other guy was Vido Alexsiev.
Going to #11, I passed Vido after the first reentrant. The green had been pushing us too far right and north. Both of us picked-up on this and turned at about the same time to cross the last reentrant. I saw the control first, probably since I had a brighter head lamp.
Going to #12, it was even greener than all of the other controls. I pushed around to the right, but it was much more to the right than the mapped green. Once nearing the stream, I knew to cut further left (south) and soon hit the control.
For leg #13, I felt pretty good. I got to the first reentrant a bit on the low side and was reading the control to be in the next. It seemed easier to drop a little, and cross the stream where it was flatter. I did that while Vido took a more direct route. Once I saw the reentrant, I climbed up, but the contours here didn't seem to fit well. Maybe the control circle is hiding a bit of another reentrant, and that was more extensive than is mapped. I climbed that reentrant. It was bigger than I expected and I could see Vido high above. Worse, there was no control in it. I could no longer see Vido from the top, so I thought to bail to the trail. As I was getting there, I saw the control on my left--I hadn't really lost much time but had added some climb. I probably lost 40 seconds.
I left #13 a little to the north and quickly got stuck in green. I began to think I might have run over the trail because it kept going and I was starting to descend. I backed out enough to see #13 again, and went south until I could get around the green and hit the trail. My GPS track shows I backed out just before I would have hit the trail. Once on the trail, I ran okay but I was tired from this run and the increased running this week. I walked up part of the hill after the dam.
Overall, this was a fair to good run for me. My baubles on #12 and #13 weren't so great and the error on #3 could have been reduced. It was a pretty fun course. Given the green terrain, Ken found some pretty nice woods