Orienteering 1:13:09 [4] *** 8.6 km (8:30 / km) +170m 7:44 / km
shoes: Orange O-Shoes
EVENT: HH Regional Event
COURSE: W21L, 8.6 km, 170 meters climb, 19 controls
WOODS: Egypt Woods and Burnham Beeches. Very nice and runnable in some places, and quite green (mostly holly) in others. There were some trails here and there and some people walking their dogs on the south part of the map. As promised in the final details, there were several uncrossable pheasant pens. I didn't see any pheasants though...
RESULTS: I was not concentrating well when I started. I had seen the direction in which CJ and Helen headed (since I was one of the last OUOC people to start) and jogged in that direction after I got my map, trying to locate the start on it and fold it. This took me more time than it should and I veered off to the right while doing it. Not a disaster, since the first leg was relatively short, but I was still 50 meters east of where I should have been when I crossed the clearing. I ran west, got the control, and then headed off in the wrong direction to number 2. Almost immediately realized what I was doing wrong and headed back up the hill again. I was pretty much straight on with number 3 and had a good split, then went on to screw up 4 by 3 minutes, even though it was a very easy attack. Basically, 3 and 4 were located close to the edges of a grassy clearing. I ran across the clearing, saw the big depression, but didn't see the control in it (which was there, but hidden from my view). So when I saw other people heading west , I thought that perhaps I had just gone a bit too far east. However, after I had passed another huge depression and climbed a couple of contour lines up a hill, I began to doubt. Then, when I saw the big reentrant, I realized where I was and went back down and then back east, straight to my control.
I messed up #5 a bit too, ended up 30-40 meters east of the control, even though I attacked it from close-by on a bearing. This wasn't a huge mistake though, since I realized what happened and found it soon enough.
6,7,8 were all good. Number 9 went well but had some potential for a mistake. I was about 15 meters east of the control and although I knew I was close, I wasn't sure how close, and I probably would have kept running a bit further, had I not seen two other people bounding west and punching.
Number 10 was a really long leg - over 1.5 km. It took me over a minute to unfold the map and refold it, during which time I drifted off west. Finally, after I got my map together, I then headed in the general right direction, and I am still trying to figure out exactly where I went and what I did. I ticked off the major things: crossing the stream, crossing the fence, big trails, and knew for certain where I was once I was running south along a small trail, surrounded by green. But I left the trail too early to try to attack, wrongfully inspired to do so by another orienteer. I made my way back to the trail through the green and sure enough, about 10 seconds further out, was the area I was looking for.
11 and 12 went well, and although I messed up a bit (20-30 seconds) on 13, that was sort of understandable. It looked like there were several small trails going through this grass area, which weren't mapped. Once I saw the road, I realized I needed to cut east through the green, and found my control. So, there was some hesitation and the route choice wasn't spectacular, but wasn't a disaster either.
13-14 was another long leg. I was feeling tired by this point and got confused by a fence towards the beginning of the leg. But, although I would have chosen a different route choice for the first half of the leg, the rest I did fine.
14-15 was the worst leg today. I had a route choice and began to execute it, then feared I might be drifting too far west (which in reality was impossible since I would have crossed a stream then, which would have been obvious, but I was tired). So I headed north and ended up being too far east of the control. I was confused and spent several minutes relocating (which I did, successfully, but which took me some time). This was a 7 minute mistake.
The rest of the course, I am happy to say, went very well. I beat Helen's splits for 16,17,18,19, and tied for the finish split. :)