Orienteering race 1:21:00 [3] ***
spiked:13/14c
Ran the Cliff Cave O-meet today. A great course--kudos to Jeff and Carrie for putting on such a good race. I extended myself a little. Usually I run orange, but the two options were yellow and green/red, and I went for the longer and more difficult.
Aside from a lot of fight and mud (all through the race, lots of spills and small branches, with one in the eye early in the race), I cruised through the first five. (Note: the race had two maps with an exchange midway. One map had 8 controls, and one had 6. I started with the one with 8). On the way to the sixth, I got disoriented and, once I got to where I was sure the control was, I spent about 20 minutes looking for it. It was absolutely frustrating, especially since if I wasn't in the right place, I had not the least idea where else I could be. I was so close to Cliff Cave that I used it as a spot to reorient myself, and still I fouled up. I ended up finding a control in a re-entrant that looked right, but even after seeing the number wasn't the right one, I punched it anyway, thinking I'd screwed up in recording the control number (the clue card at that point having been torn off my control card where it was stapled). Later I confirmed it was the wrong one--crap. Anyway, I'd moved on and found the rest of the controls without any more major errors.
Looking back on the race, I noticed a few things to remember down the pipe. One--I need O-shoes, or something with cleets. Two--when I transfer the clues onto the control card, I need to be very careful to record the right numbers. Not only did I doubt myself at number 6, but when I got to number 7, I noticed the number on my card didn't match that control either. (That control ended up being correct.) It was surreal. Three--I spent a lot of time reorienting my map again, just like last race. Not sure why it's gotten to be a problem lately, but I think some more practice running with a map and keeping it oriented will help me. Finally--on a positive note, a couple of times I saw another orienteer probably looking for the same control I was (we were on the same route, starting together with the same maps and courses), and noticed that we were looking in different areas. I had pangs of doubt, but ignored their direction (or approach) and trusted my own sense of where I was, and I was right! How fun! It was a confidence builder.
All in all a fun day.
Walk warm up/down 20:00 [1]
About 20 minutes of walking around, slow jogging, stretching to keep warm before the race.