Orienteering race 16:16 [5] *** 2.6 km (6:15 / km) +80m 5:25 / km
spiked:13/13c
My calf held out ok for the duration of the Fair Hills Sprint. Since we could choose our start times, I gave Nate a 2-minute head start, thinking I would probably pass him in the middle of the course. I was navigating pretty cleanly and running at a reasonable speed (my only bad hesitation on the way to C6 - first because I wasn't sure I stayed on the trail heading S, then when I got to the field, I saw the 3 individual trees across the way, but couldn't see the bag on the middle one. Then I remembered good old C9 at the Flying Pig and "confidently" ran towards the middle tree until the bag became visible), but did not even see Nate until C9, when he came in from the right and punched while I was coming past the trail. I thought I had him at C10 when I cut thru the woods and he went all the way to the field, but he beat me to the punch by several seconds. I chased him the rest of the way, but he did not hesitate, and I could not close the gap at all. It turned out that 8 of our 14 splits were within 2 seconds, and 2 others were only 5 seconds apart.