Orienteering race 45:07 [4] *** 6.45 km (7:00 / km)
spiked:15/16c slept:7.0
ROC Score-O at Genesee Valley Park.
This was definitely a runner's course. After flipping the map over, it became clear to me that I should go north first, mostly to figure out whether I had time to get all of the controls (they were spread widely around the perimeter of the park), and to figure out whether to go clockwise or counter on the southern loop.
I got caught off-guard going to my first control (7) by the number of people running fast towards it, while I was out conservatively. I ended up punching behind Nate and Victor. Leaving the control, there was no sign of Nate, which was strange, since I only saw one option for leaving that control (going north). I did that loop uneventfully and made it back south of 390 in about 10 minutes, so it was clear that I could get all of the controls.
I skipped 8 on the way out, since I'd have to go almost right past it on the way in, and I decided to go counter-clockwise for the southern loop - for 2 reasons: it's be easier to get from 13 to the trail than vice-versa, and it looked like 15-16 was a much easier route than 16-15. On the way down the dead end road to 13, I saw Dan coming the other way, which had me worried, then I saw Nate pop out and punch 13, and was sure I was in trouble if Dan was ahead of Nate. That got me to pick up the pace a fair amount, not knowing that Dan was taking controls in a rather random fashion, and that Nate had lost several minutes leaving the first control, and trying to take the route along the river to the southern section of the park. The map did not show that the uncrossable fence went all the way to the river.
Leaving 15, I blew it by not checking that I crossed a creek before trying to follow the perimeter of some rough open land, looking for the trail leading out of there. I hit the creek and realized my mistake and had to bushwhack thru stuff that was over my head in places. My legs are still itching, a day later, from whatever was in there. And I lost 2-3 minutes. So, I ran pretty hard from 16 to the finish (grabbing 8 along the way), and managed to get Nate by a bit over a minute! And Dan didn't manage to see 16 on his map, so he missed that one.
Orienteering race 18:43 [5] *** 2.6 km (7:12 / km)
spiked:7/8c
ROC Sprint at Genesee Valley Park.
I'm calling this a 5 effort, although I was not going anywhere near 5K pace, with legs that were heavy from the Score-O. I did run about as hard as I could, though, as Chelsea (1 min) and Zach (2 min) started in front of me and Nate behind me (2 min, although I thought it was 1, until the results went up).
Leaving 2, I took the path thru the woods, while Chelsea and Zach stayed on the paved trail, so I was able to leapfrog them nicely. Chelsea stayed fairly close to me for the next few controls, but I opened up some space on the way to 6 (I think Nate caught her on that leg). I spiked 6, but came across the bridge thinking it was the bridge from the Score-O and looked right for the control. Things did not line up and by the time I had a decent look at the map, Nate was sprinting by to my left. I tried to keep up, but his legs are too young and he smoked me. Coming back from 8, Chelsea looked lost, but I guess it was just a temporary thing, as she had a plan for getting to 8.
Running warm up/down 22:30 [2] 2.5 mi (9:00 / mi)
Got about 8 minutes of jogging in before the score-o, 2 minutes before the sprint and 12.5 after the sprint (forced myself to go right out, before inertia had a chance to set in).