Orienteering race 1:35:36 [4]
Later Start time. Saw lot fewer orienteers out there and saw little speed until F21's started criss-crossing my paths late in course. Woods were much more runnable and higher visibility helped a lot. Climb seemed less than 4%. Maintained stronger pace than I expected. Read a lot more features on each leg today. 11th in M60; 8th among NAOC.
S-1: Across swamp, chose to stay flat til knoll vs. get to trail. Slow, low visibility, got to trail anyway, up sunny knoll. Good for leg 1.
1-2: Chose right over left - better AP off knoll, did not like contour option even if bit faster. Read trail, spur flat top well though cautiously. Bearing from pine tree. Worked well.
2-3-4: short bearing and pace - accurate.
4-5: Chose left (contour steep hillside over right (too much climb) but never saw straight - best option. Usually I do check 'straight' first. Confused by 'medium' reentrant on ground, then much too far left. Saw control and people from 100m+ - looks like mine, yes! (-1)
5-6: LONG! Aimed for swamp, pulled left, hit trail junction exactly - good but bit hesitant. Long trail and stone wall run. Goal: bearing to stony spur then to end of swamp. Veered left 5 times, weird - rough vegetation. Corrected, hit knoll nicely, clean finish. 23:49 on 1.6K leg was quite competitive; maybe -1.
6-7: Right to run trashy spur - clean.
7-8: soupbone and cadet left fast ahead of me. Up steep ridge, check off big rock face, clean.
8-9: Bearing to bridge. End of lake, bearing to subtle ridge. Saw big rocks, saw control ahead (not right) and could not resist. checked, no, corrected quickly. -1 maybe
9-10-11: Contoured to big rocks. Goal was 'side reentrant on large reentrant. Saw control higher - could not resist! Checked, my #11, to #10 and back. -1 first 'dumb' mental error.
11-12:-13: Cautious with cadet.
13-14: Beeline - read ups and downs well. Actually stayed high enough - pleasant surprise. (Nearly equal with Walter til 14)
14-15: Never saw 'north of pond to stream'. Went right and went too far near pond. "Must corss stream" became "let's cross beaver dam". Half-way, "Why the h am I here?" Retraced. last 400m featureless, hit root stock with control, I'd veered left, did not want to believe it, finally found and followed stream. -3 (bad route, execution, and correction)
15-16-F: To GO control, turned off brain. Slow, bearing got me to small knoll, saw long knoll, but wanted to see chute. Ran to chute, left to control back to finish. -2, ugly.
Very solid run except loosing 5 minutes on last 2 controls.