Orienteering race 1:39:18 [3] *** 13.1 km (7:35 / km) +1312ft 6:35 / km
ahr:157 max:167 spiked:24/24c shoes: Icebug Spirit #1
Following the master orienteers at this year's Billygoat was a great chance for me to gain that extra bit of confidence, both in physically moving fast through the woods and in my navigation. I didn't follow anyone during the Susquehanna Stumble last September, so I expected not to follow anyone today, either. However, things were different this time. Inspired by the spirit of the Billygoat, right out of the start I formed the goal of following the navigation of the runners ahead of me as well as I possibly could. Given this goal, and given the fact that the rest of the field were largely better at navigation than I, I quickly realized that it didn't make sense for me to skip any controls until the very end. I did have enough navigation skill to keep following runners who weren't skipping any controls. Then, when I saw that I could follow a trail from control 21 straight to 23 - and that I could manage on my own from 23 to the finish - I skipped 22 and went for it. In the end, this was the best result of my orienteering career so far. I could not have done it without the collaboration with some excellent orienteers, including DVOA's Wyatt Riley and Greg Balter, as well as my own CSU club-mates Boris Granovskiy and Kenny Walker, Jr.