Orienteering race 1:28:02 [4] 8.67 km (10:09 / km) +180m 9:12 / km
shoes: Orange O-Shoes
EVENT: TVOC district event at Coombe Hill, Wendover
COURSE: Brown, 8.67 km, 180 m climb, 20 controls
TERRAIN: Mostly typical terrain with a network of trails, some fences, and almost as much green as white on the map. The usual assortment of pits, depressions, and earthwalls. Some parts of the woods were very nice and runnable, but others had brambles and nettles and thin trees growing close together which were particularly nasty to run through.
MY RUN: I was aiming to (a) practice control flow (b) beat Joe Mercer on one split. I only half-succeeded with the first goal, but I did quite well with the second! I had decent route choices to all of the first three controls, but wasted time in the control circle finding each, although I would only call #3 a real mistake. Then I saw that M55 from TVOC (who I had just beat on Wednesday at the last TVOC summer series event). We kept switching positions for the next few controls, all the way almost to #10. We took different route choices (some I did better, some he did) but we would always meet up again. So while I was racing with him, I had really good control flow and I was going fast and concentrating well. But then I screwed up #10 by 9 minutes and lost him completely. (#10 was a "distinct rough open" which wasn't so distinct). Afterward, I felt really tired from all that extra exertion and frustrated at having run around in circles. Despite trying to keep focusing, I messed up the next three controls really badly, and then was feeling so dehrydated climbing up the hill to number 14 that I just began walking along the hillside (in the wrong direction). I was panicking a bit because I really needed water and the car park (where the water was) was a long way away. Finally, I got myself together, managed to climb up the hill, and find the next several controls. I slowed down when I was about 10 meters away from #16 in anticipation of punching it and then nailing #17. I decided that even though my overall time would be pretty bad, at least I could have one fast split. I spiked #17 - that felt good. Then I jogged the rest of the course very slowly.
RESULTS: I was 18th out of 29 on the brown course. Joe Mercer won in 56:51 and Helen was fifth with a time of 69:44. I had almost 20 minutes of mistakes, but on the bright side, I beat Joe on 4 splits (#6,#8,#9, and #17). =)
THOUGHTS: I have to force myself to drink more water on a regular basis or else I will sooner or later end up fainting on some hillside. It was really hot and sunny today and I should have prepared better for running a physically tough course under such conditions.