Running warm up/down 15:12 [2] 2.19 km (6:55 / km) +99m 5:39 / km
shoes: NB wt00
Forcing my legs to move. Definitely did not have ~100 m of climb on this as GPS says.
Orienteering 41:40 [4] 5.01 km (8:20 / km) +232m 6:46 / km
shoes: NB wt00
Carter Caves Middle - 4.2 km, 230 m climb
Did not sleep well last night and was incredibly out of it this morning. Terrible hotel coffee did not help me in combatting sleepiness. Took a Gu prior to the start and that helped a bit. My legs were feeling very heavy and lacked any spring. This course gave in tougher physically but I still tried to push hard the whole way. Navigationally, it was just OK and I did make mistakes that could have totally been avoided. #7 was a stupid mistake where I saw Alex, who started 3 min ahead of me, leave in the direction of the next control and lost concentration and whatever rough bearing I did have, veering left and running right by the control. Told myself to not make such mistake again. The green threw me off a bit on #8; next few controls were good. Coming into #12 I see Alex again, and again I falter. First, by running hard into a stick in the green with my side body and second, by messing up the next control. I was going into fine but then started doubting position on the slope, stopping short and losing time. Told myself again to keep focus and stop being an idiot. The last loop was purely physical, however, and I did not have much energy left in my legs. Road/trail to #14, lower trail to #15, trail to #16, countering and trail to #17, wait for it, trail to #18. Strong uphill finish.
Counted 300 m of climb from the map..
So my focus was actually quite decent on legs where I was not trying to catch up to Alex. TF, this was a valuable experience to learn from. Entering and exiting the controls was good. Route choice selection could have been better.