Orienteering race 1:01:47 [4] 6.18 km (10:00 / km)
BFLO Score-O at Hunter's Creek.
Pace is a guess to estimate a distance.
There was only one control to go to first, so everyone was headed there. Zach beat me, but I held off the others to get there second. 2nd control was also obvious. Zach distracted me by staying on the trail too long, even after I cut in, so I ended up going a bit past it. I decided to go left thru the woods and save the controls on the trail for the way in. Got pushed farther left than I wanted by the thick stuff, so I wasn't sure how far to go to get to the first control near the gas line. Zach ended up beating me there, even though he had taken the trail and picked up the two extra controls. He and I traded the lead a bit during the next few controls. When I crossed N of the gas line to get the control by the creek, he was not around - he had gotten the control to the S, that I planned on grabbing on the way back.
Crossed the creek and headed up the other side. The next control was on a plateau before the true top, and I recognized it and cut right in. Got overconfident leaving the control and thought I followed the contours properly, but when I finally looked at my compass, I was off almost 90 degrees. By the time I corrected, Zach was also coming into the control. I stayed ahead of him down the hill and back across the creek.
Up the hill, I ended up cutting in too early when I saw a huge root stock, so Zach got ahead of me again. I went farther left to the next control, but he was right (and correct) and beat me there. I closed the gap going up the stream to the next control, then passed him in the terrain near the property corner - not sure why he couldn't stay ahead. Got the 2 controls in that area and tried to go straight N to the gas line. The going was OK for a bit, but got nasty - no sign of Zach, he smartly went around on the trail.
Crossed the gas line and got the next 2 controls, realizing that time was getting tight (and now I realized how much time I lost by not being able to read the control codes on the map in the woods - I had to see the code on the flag, then open the map to look at the clue sheet for which box to punch, losing several seconds per control in the process). So, I ran hard down the hill (harder still when Brian Thomas let me pass, then stayed close behind). I could not make sense of the trails (and lack thereof) to the right and there are no other features on the map in this area, but I realized there was a big ditch for a catching feature. When I got there, I couldn't see a flag, so I looked at the clue sheet and saw that it was stream junction, so I could safely climb down, and it was right below me. Got the next one fairly cleanly and realized there wasn't quite enough time for the last one, but thought I could be less than a minute OT and break even while getting them all. Good line to the final control and just a small hesitation while I determined whether I had to go down again (I did, of course).
I had just over 3 minutes to get back and thought I could make it close - it was less than 700m straight line. Set a rough bearing and really went after it up the hill. Too much up the hill, in fact - I made it just about to the reentrant with Sprint C6, and had to run back down. I had seen the lower trail earlier but didn't think I could be there already. Shoot! So, I was a second minute over, but that was good enough to win by 2 controls, as Dave managed to get 21 of the 25 controls. Zach also touched them all, but was about 2 minutes behind me, as he went too far east on the wrong trails when heading back north.