Orienteering race 55:16 [4] *** 5.7 km (9:42 / km)
spiked:8/12c slept:7.0
BFLO Meet at Camp Schoellkopf
Legs were feeling a little heavy from yesterday's time trial, but I was able to maintain a reasonable pace thru much of the course. The slow time is primarily due to the bags that were on the ground. This happened at 2, 3, 6 and 7.
At C2, I didn't lose much more than a) some confidence as I climbed the spur with no flag in sight and b) the time to pick it up and tie it back on to a tree (probably quite visible for the rest of the runners).
But at C3, I lost at least 7 minutes. It did not occur to me that there could be 2 flags in a row on the ground, so when I got to the correct hilltop and didn't see it, I was thinking that it was perhaps misplaced, so I wandered a bit, then attacked from a specific point on the trail and came back to the same hill. Some more wandering in case I could spot it elsewhere, then another attack from the small clearing to the north. This time I stood on the top of the hill, and noticed the flag near my feet, partially obscured by leaves. So I hung that back up.
No problems with 4 & 5. 6 was on the ground, but it didn't matter, since the knoll was easily visible from a distance (just lost the 10-15 seconds to tie it back on a tree). C7 was a problem. The area was just green enough, and had enough undulation, that I wasn't 100% sure I had the correct hilltop, so I checked out the creek view to verify my location and went back and found it on the ground - lost at least 2 minutes there.
The rest of the controls were all still hanging, so the only problem I had was rushing things on the approach to C11. I was using Nate's thumb compass, for just the second time and managed to take the wrong trail towards the wrong building and blew what should have been an easy control. I took too long to recover because I kept myself convinced that I had been at the correct building, even though the contours didn't make sense.
So, Rob ended up completely smoking me, and my 3 excuses (flags on the ground, heavy legs and inexperience with the thumb compass) don't seem to add up to explaining it.
Running warm up/down 9:00 [2] 1.0 mi (9:00 / mi)
About 4 minutes down to the main road and 5 minutes back before registering. No time for a w/dn, since I was off to the Bills game (and they actually held on for the win this time).
Running 4:30 [3]
Ran back to the car from the Ralph after the game, hoping to get to Nate's 6pm hockey game. Turned out to be smooth sailing - I think a lot of people stayed in the parking lots to savor the win and the mid-to-upper 70s sunshiny afternoon.