SM Ultralong. This season has just been a very wet orienteering time. This race no exception. Chilly and drizzly on and off, but actually pretty good race weather.
Not a large field and so the mass start was only about 50 people. Already on the way to the first control I was struggling to keep up physically, the woods were very "heavy" as the Swedes say, which is to say wet and spongy. I got pulled pretty far down the hillside on the first control by the guys that had the other forking, I lost a bit of time there figuring out where I was but then successfully navigated to my control. It only took about 5 minutes before I was running completely alone.
Got quite lost on the 2nd control too, misreading the swamp just before the control and not interpreting the contours well. Then settled in and checked off the next several without much incident. Came through the first loop, and headed off on the second. Made a mistake navigating to my control in spite of, or perhaps even because I had already visited the area on the first loop. Still managed to get too high.
Uneventful section as I continued on to the third loop, and head out across the map. I was seeing some more people now, some from the other classes, a few that I caught back up with in my own class, and then also occasionally the leaders that were one loop ahead of me on the butterfly already. It was coming back to the middle of the butterfly loop that I slipped coming down the rocky hillside and planted my knee directly into a stone.
It hurt quite a bit, and even though I could see my control just ahead I needed to sit down and wait out the pain a bit before I could walk the rest of the way to the flag. At this point I evaluated and realized that it hurt too much to run, and that I was not going to be able to finish in the 3.5 hour time limit. I was very disappointed but started walking out towards the road.
After several minutes of walking through the woods, I decided that it was starting to feel a bit better, and since I had been walking towards control 18 anyway, I might be able to just continue the course. I hadn't been paying much attention though, and so I needed to relocate before finally getting the flag and then on the very next control I got very lost thinking that my control was the cliff when really it was the small marsh on top.
The rest of the course I was slow but stable, taking routes that were easier on my knee and not worrying so much about how I was going overtime.
It was great to hear bubo cheering for me in the finish chute and I was even pretty content after the run because I was just very happy to not be forced to drop out of the race.
Splits Though they have been ordered based on an alternate forking to my own, so my mistakes on 2, 18, and 19, are instead shown at 7, 14, and 15.