Orienteering 1:43:56 [3] *** 6.38 mi (16:17 / mi) +924ft 14:20 / mi
spiked:8/13c slept:6.0 weight:172.5lbs shoes: New Balance MT461GO
Red course at Dryer Rd park. Pretty bad overall. Major problems on two controls. I think I just need to accept that I am basically fairly incompetent when it comes to competitive orienteering, rather than continually getting frustrated when I demonstrate that over and over!
My time was about 2X the winner. (Of course, the winner was feet, so that's a fairly lofty winner -- but still, 2X the winner's time is just not at all good.)
Straight-line distance was stated to be 6.9 km.
Slight injury: Developed a blister (actually more of a raw spot than a blister) on my left foot, outside of foot, below the ankle bone, where the top of the shoe contacts the foot. I was aware of it starting to get very uncomfortable during the last approx. third of the course. Can't say it was an excuse for a poor performance, though, because my major mistakes were before it became an issue.
Comments on course:
1: No issues, just going cautiously to avoid getting lost on my way to the big field at Ft. Hill. From the field, no problem finding the control.
2: (One of my two very big problems) Left #1 heading NE through woods and field, although I was tempted to backtrack a short distance to the trail just W of #1. In hindsight, I think that might have been a bit better, but that wasn't a big problem. My big problem came after crossing School Street. I decided to duck across the ruined fence, more or less in the direction of #5, and take the trails to approach #2 from the north, but I got all botched up, didn't find the trail near #5 for some reason, and finally, after much lost time, wound up on the trail south of #2. Once I realized where I was (slightly confused as to how I got there), I found the control OK.
3. No issues.
4. No issues.
5. Went down a wrong trail for a short distance (a 90 degree error, those are getting common for me), but realized it before too long. Then I left the trail near #5 but headed too high (too far NE), so I lost a minute or two finding the flag.
6. No major issues, but not real clean. I took a fairly straight-line approach from the NW corner of the field, but my distance judgment was poor so I thought I should have been at the control sooner than I was, and I spent some small but needless time looking for the control where it wasn't. It's amazing, when I pace count, it almost always works well, but I rarely think to pace count.
7. (My other major problem) I headed up to the Ft. Hill field, got the trail heading to Dryer Rd, had in mind what trails to possibly follow, but things weren't making sense. I think there are many new trails since the map was made 4 years ago. So I decided to basically ignore the trails and try to read contours, which seems like it was working, but I got to the re-entrant that I thought was the right one (and it appeared to be the one right next to the fairly straight mostly N-S trail, so that made sense), but no control. I tried a couple of other attacks before I finally found it. Not sure where I was at first; I'll get my route into Quick Routes and try to figure out where I was looking. Lots of time lost.
8. More time lost on this one also. Tried attacking from a trail junction which wasn't the one I thought it was; finally bailed out to what I think is the SW loop, where I knew exactly where I was because it's kind of a distinctive shape, then found the control OK.
9. No issues.
10. Tried to focus on getting on the trail that was less zig-zaggy than the other nearby trails, and it seemed to work.
11. No issues; basically took a compass bearing and didn't try to read the trails.
12. Found it but in a very non-optimum way. I read arthurd's comment about the woods being far from white, and I certainly agree, and that is what caused me to pick such a non-optimum route. As the mapper from 4 years ago, I guess I'm the one to blame! I don't think the vegetation changed that dramatically in 4 years, so I'll just own up to doing a decidedly imperfect job of mapping the vegetation in this area.
13 and finish: No issues.
So two very major problems (#2 and #7), and numerous places where a few minutes were lost here and there. The result is that I was the second to the last finisher (although there were several DNF's).
And it's kind of an over-done joke these days, but so I had a terrible course, at least it's not the end of the world ...