Middle distance at DVOA A meet at Hickory Run. M45
Red course, 3.9 km, 110 m climb.
My
route. Good run, orienteering well, but was a more tired and not moving as well.
Very nice area and very nice course by Sandy. Needed to be on your toes, and the excursion into the laurel for 7 and 8 was fine, added some variety. And I think people had problems there, even though the map seemed just fine to me.
Caught up to JJ at #7, and Ethan punched right after me. I didn't know when JJ started (turned out it was 10 minutes before me), and I thought Ethan had started 2 minutes before me. Beat them to 8, then got stuck in the laurel leaving 8. Saw JJ a number of times thereafter, but he was a little faster. Thought I'd seen the last of Ethen at 8, but then I was back up to him at 10. But then he just ran away from me, picked up more than 2 minutes on me from there to the finish.
The WOC stars (Sam and Ali) both had problems, Ali still got me by half a minute, but I tied Sam exactly. Not a really a scalp, but I'll call it a scalpette. Got to take what you can. And probably the last time I'll come anywhere close to her. I think she lost about 4 minutes on #7, whereas Ali just sort of dribbled time away in small chunks. Both are fast enough to run the course in 30, but it was demanding orienteering (visibility was often restricted) and easy to miss. A great test.