Orienteering (Sprint) 16:29 [4] ** 2.8 km (5:53 / km)
spiked:14/17c
Canal Cities Challenge Sprint. BOC put on this sprint in a nice place for it. There was lots of grass to run on as well as some trails. Only a few steps were required for off-trail running. I started fine though my speed suffered from all of the running this week. I'm just not used to it yet. The control codes were sequential through #6 but on the 7th, they jumped from #106 to #108. This threw me off a little. I started running toward #8 and lost a bunch of time. I tried to make up for it on #9 but by #10, I was running too hard, and not thinking clearly. I think I again was thrown-off by the mapping of the parking lots approaching the road on the way to #10; I overshot the control and had to come back for it. I over shot #11 by thinking more about some controls that I'd seen earlier when going to the restrooms. Francis F. passed me when I was approaching the control on the tennis courts. I ran better to the last few controls but because of the way I'd folded my map, and because of a formline contour that angled toward the finish, I hadn't realized there was another loop around the pond. I was ready to head in. This race was somewhat dissapointing becuase of the errrors.
After finishing, I ran around taking pictures of others who were sprinting. I got a lot of shots of Kathleen Lennon and Peggy in different places. Peggy was trying to catch-up to Kathleen and Kathleen was trying hard to stay ahead. After all of this, Max and Nicole Lennon both got stung by a bee or wasp while on the playground set near the start. Because Max is somewhat allergic to bee stings, we had to make an emergency room visit. He had swollen-up but was otherwise fine. Even with medicines, it took until the next day for the swelling and color to go back to normal.