Victorian Middle Distance Championship at Creswick Diggings. Good terrain. Good map. Good course. Good event. Good weather.
Poor orienteering execution. Not sure if buying a new compass with magnifier was a great idea on the first morning of the National carnival. Weeks before might have been better. I think I will use this log for some critical self-analysis in the hope I learn a lesson or two for the rest of the carnival.
S-1 Planned to follow the wide route on the road. Everyone else went straight and I turned into a sheep. Road would have been quicker. Count as a fail.
1-2. Learnt from the previous control and took western road. Clearly faster. Count as spike.
2-3 Aimed off a little and came in along the embankment. Spike
3-4 Straight only option. Picked an attackpoint and used it. Spike.
4-5. Went straight. Might have been better to head a little to the left and follow the embankment. Ended up in the correct area, but those around me went west. I was looking at the correct feature, but turned into a sheep. Lost 4 minutes. Fail 2.
5-6 Straight. Learnt that a stroight route through the detail requires me to keep in contact with said detail, so this time I did. Spike.
6-7 Straight. A short gimmer as I saw the control where i expected whilst still 50 metres away., Flattering spike
7-8 By now I was not too proud to take the hand rail option and it worked. Spike.
8-9 Confused by the clearing of all things. Misread the end of the cliff and came out too late. Didn't know where I was on the track and ran until I did. And then I knew I had gone too far. Had some trouble with using magnifier on this leg when trying to read the bigger picture. Fail 3
9-10 Took the collecting feature son offer on the straight line. Saw the thicket and the rest was easy if fun. Spike.
10-11 Straight line using the thicket to guide me in to the control. Spike
11-12 easy now. Red line with fence on the right to guide and another fence as a catching feature. Spike.
12-13 Easy along the fence. Easy spike.
13-F Finish chute.
Three muffed controls. For six or seven minutes. In a race won in under 30 minutes, thats quite a bit of time.
Lessons to remember.
1. Tracks justify going some way out of line to avoid slow mining terrain. And they offer good attack points.
2. Use the gorse for gross navigation. Its the most obvious feature in the terrain.
3. When you have to red line through detail, make every effort to keep in contact unless there is an unmissable collecting feature.