After the orange experience, I was determined to run well on red. (Also, the colors. Ugh.)
Started out with very little cool-down, a couple of minutes after Alex. Ran well to 1, spiked.
Ran low to 2, good route choice, very runnable. Spike.
3, spike.
4, up the hill, maintain contact, spike.
5, using the parallel features from earlier, spike. And I saw Alex running back to the control (she'd gone to 11).
6 I took a weird route through green, and punched just ahead of Alex (navigated the circle well).
7 went low, then came back, using the map well (hill, reentrant, rocks, big rock).
With Alex to 8, mostly, she was using a compass, I was using terrain. We both wound up north a bit and I ran in just ahead of her. (Me: "ugh." Alex: "Make a plan, and follow it."
9 was tough terrain and she led in to the last bit, lots of extra lakes today.
10 I ran well, handrailing off the stone wall to the corner, then using the rocks to lead me to the control. Spike.
11 was a long leg but manageable. Mentioned to Alex that this was the battle of the micro route choices (I want to see her strava track for flyby). I took the stone wall to the end of the bendy part, avoiding most green, then went east. No Alex. Spike. Alex on the way out.
12 Make a plan and follow it. Down the stone wall, cross the stream. Oh, a rocky hill, map contact. Oh, an Alex. And somewhere, a control.
13 Definitely worth dropping down and running along the wall. Super easy attack to the big rock.
14 cross the stream and run the trail. Hesitation to the control (wrong rock)
Bash to finish.
No big mistakes. Only really little mistakes. Contact. Flow. Fun. This is what I want every orienteering session to feel like.
(Oh, I beat Alex by 4 minutes and Vilppu by 1, Alex beat my overall time but we tied on number of races won.)
The Strava flyby of this is
amazing.
And after 8 miles of O and one on trails, my IT band only hurts a little.