ARDF (80m) 1:24:47 [3] *** 12.0 km (7:04 / km)
5c shoes: Brooks Running 18
80m classic race at the World ARDF champs! 7th place!!!!
Woohoo! Tough race! The map today was a mix of impassible forest, uncrossable rice paddies, and towns filled with unmapped power lines. The unmapped powerlines were particularly relevant because powerlines make it impossible to get bearings on 80m.
I came out of the start chute straight into a village completely filled with powerlines. I knew I needed to make a decision on how to exit the village relatively quickly because I needed to know what trail to take. Unfortunately, the bearings I was getting were not good. At one point I turned in a full circle and heard the transmitter at the same volume the entire way around. Ugh. I eventually ruled out the possibility of a transmitter in the southwestern part of the map and headed north west. I finally got on a trail without powerlines and was able to get a good bearing on the first transmitter. I got quite close before the transmitter went off, narrowing it down the location to two small trails quite near each other. Sadly, I chose to explore the wrong small trail, so I lost a cycle there. Once it came on again, I bashed out of the wrong small trail and then up the correct trail just as a couple of people were coming out of the woods, so I was able to pop in and get it off-cycle.
I headed off to the next transmitter, and again, saw someone coming out as I was coming up to it. I popped up the trail she'd been on and the transmitter came on as I was nearing the it, so I was able to pop off the trail and into the transmitter location fairly easily. I left the control in a direction that looked passible on the map, but was not, in fact passible, so after a brief foray into the forest turned around and went back the way I'd come. (This was absolutely the correct decision.) I headed off up a trail in the direction of the finish when the next transmitter came on again behind me. Sigh. I turned around and headed off to the transmitter. I went up a tiny trail and into a smallish field with a juror in it. I knew the transmitter had to be close, so circled around the field until it came on. It was in the middle of some bushes on the other side of the field. I found the antenna, but then couldn't see the flag, which was vaguely startling. Luckily a bunch of us came into the control around the same time, and I found the control when someone else pushed through the green away from it.
I'd had lots of time to get nice bearings on the last transmitter, so it was just a route choice decision - shorter with tiny looking trails and some running through grave sites or longer on bigger trails. The small trails had not had great running, so I opted for the longer way around (again a good decision). I was quite proud of myself when I went exactly to the correct trail, ran along it until I saw a small hole in the wall of vegetation, poked my head in and found the transmitter off-cycle. Then it was just a downhill run into the finish.
I didn't quite believe it went the download said I was in 5th place. I figured I must have misheard and was actually in 15th, but nope, it was indeed 5th! Two more people came in ahead of me after a while, but I'm extremely happy with 7th!!!