Orienteering race (Foot) 1:11:35 [4] **** 8.1 km (8:50 / km) +260m 7:37 / km
spiked:14/19c slept:6.5 weight:180.5lbs
QOC: Ran-It-Granite Long-O in McKeldin State Park near the old Nike Missle Site off Hernwood Rd. I was to volunteer helping with the meet later so I had an early, 9:00am start time--first on Red. I enjoyed the initial downhill start though the course made everyone pay for it getting to the finish from the other end of the map. For the initial going I was fairly accurate but feeling like my legs were dragging. On the low route going toward #10 I took a Gu only 30 minutes into the race. After that, I did feel a little better but never was fast. As our routes merged on a trail for a short way while I was going to #13, Vadim, on the way to #2 was easily running much faster. My accuracy remained good until after #13. I didn't see many other people through the run. It might have helped or hurt as I went into the technical section at the end. I knew I'd need to be careful and attacked #14 by going out of the way a little to come off a clearing. I just had trouble reading the map in the area. I saw the top contours but not the lower one that the control was on where the slope changed. I hunted around to the left and not reading the map I eventually got to #15 since it was the only thing I could see. Finishing #14 and getting to the next two were easy though I had a little hesitation on #16. I got to #17 just a bit high. Going over near the top to #18 I again couldn't read the detail on map in the area. I hunted many deep depressions not seeing the one with the control further down the hill and again abandoned reading the map which would have shown me it was near the trail. I did better on #19, by recognizing the longer depressions and navigating up higher after checking only one wrong depression. I lost over 4 minutes the last part of the course but the other competitors were just doing better today. I had the 5th fastest time on the course and dropped to second on M45+ for the two-day event. It was still fun and I did well overall for having little in the way of placing expecatations. I look forward to more races and losing my recent weight gains. Maybe my metabolism has slowed again.
