Orienteer 1:56:49 [3] **** 7.0 mi (16:41 / mi)
shoes: Icebug MR2 910
Gateway Runt
After feeling good yesterday, I actually considered upgrading to the Grunt. That would have been a huge mistake as the Runt was enough for me to handle.
Bad start as I made a route choice that required fording a wide river. When I got there I decided against getting my feet soaked this early and had to pound around on the upper bank through lots of reentrants. Was moving ok but proceeded to miss the next few controls and a later one too because an area of significant rocky ground was not mapped.
As the woods grew hotter, my strength ebbed away and I soon felt spent in addition to being discouraged by my nav. Decided to walk the rest and that made all the difference. I locked-down my nav and also began to really enjoy the day, woods and loved finding everything on the map. Decided to take the control I had originally planned to skip because it looked more interesting than the final control. It's rare that I can let myself be uncompetitive at an a-meet (and I don't plan on doing it often) but this was the right call today.