Running warm up/down (Street & Trail) 12:32 1.4 mi (8:58 / mi) +5m8:52 / mi slept:7.0 (injured)
White Clay Creek State Park, DE. From a bus drop-off location, to the start of DVOA's A-meet day. I jogged behind Ian Smith and once we hit the main paved road, we both missed a sign (it was folded over by wind) and some streamers. We went upstream a way before turning around and started seeing others who'd gotten off on the same bus but had been walking. It was comfortable in the mid 50s F.
Orienteering race (Foot) 43:56 [4] *** 4.5 km (9:46 / km) +180m8:08 / km spiked:14/15c (injured)
DVOA: White Clay Creek A-Meet Day. I'd been heavily forewarned about how green this park was. I also felt a little guilty running Brown when I was able to run pretty well on Yellow the day before. I took off 2 minutes behind Charlie DeWeese.
The initial leg was straightforward with just a question about how long down a straight flat road one would go before cutting over to a control on a hillside. I planned to go around some ponds/marsh and some green but when I got to a point between the ponds, it looked clear. I cut in early but was surprised to find a wet ditch that I couldn't jump over. I thought that going back would be a time waste so I took a running leap. I expected to splash and run across the bottom but my right leg went into the water and kept going down. The water looked to be almost a foot deep but my foot sank in that false bottom into muck above my knee; I just about face planted in the cold water. It woke me up and I sprung out. After that it was a jog to the hill and a walk up the steep slope to spike the control.
1-2 - I angled down, then passed Peggy who was running Red. I angled back up when I got near the control and spiked it.
2-3 - I noticed that Charlie DeWeese was near when leaving #2. We both got on the trail and onto the bridge to punch at the mandatory crossing point.
3-4 - This seemed to be an odd control being so close to the bridge and equally as easy but I guess it got us to a water stop and made cutting across on the next leg a little more tempting.
4-5 - Initially I thought to cross the woods on a close to straight line. I passed Charlie, started into the woods, then backed out. Charlie had similar second thoughts. I ran up the road and cut in just past where the marshiness ended It wasn't hard to cross the low vegetation. I climbed the spur on a ride but cut off of that slightly before it ended. Running again, I contoured until I could see the correct reentrant, then climbed a little more to the control.
5-6 - I angled down the hill, staying to the right a bit, and using the trail for a short way. I crossed and kept going straight. I became aware that someone was closing-in on me and wondered whom else on Brown would be running this speed. I didn't recognize the guy but did get to the control before he did.
6-7 - I got passed as the other guy got his bearing more quickly than I did. I closed some distance on him just before the control.
7-8 - Initially, I started going to the left. However, as the guy who'd just passed me moved ahead on the right through what was more open terrain, I shifted too. I made up some ground on him as he got stuck in the green and I crossed a side reentrant to get into the fields. Near the top I saw JJ Cote crossing from left to right and getting through a nasty field edge green. That made me more confident to do so myself, instead of going around to the left. Linda Cohen was doing something similar but was about as far along as I was only coming from another direction. I only saw one way through the green wall so I picked my way through on what seemed to be an animal track. Finally at the road, I cut right, then cut left to drop into the reentrant south west of the control. I saw rocks ahead across the stream and knew I was in the right area. However I didn't see a control at the cliffs on my side of the stream, nor the other. Closer examination of the map revealed it be shown on the other side, and after moving about a bit, I saw it. Charlie DeWeese had just caught-up w/me when this happened, and when I announced it to myself.
8-9 - I contoured across the hillside, and eventually climbed enough to reach a trail. I took that to the correct large reentrant, then went-on straight upward. This landed me in a higher reentrant/ditch which I spiked.
9-10 - As I dog-legged out of #9 and back onto a trail, I saw Charlie DeWeese again. At the bottom of the trail I cut left and right on the road to cross the stream. I climbed on bearing to the relatively easy control.
10-11 - I more or less went straight. At one point, I was on an animal track.
11-12 - I contoured out of #11 and got onto a trail near the bridge. I ran into the field soon after, and somewhat went around rather than straight over the grassy spur.
12-13 - I climbed on the left side of the marshy ground. A kid was ahead of me and he led me to the control. By this time, my injured quad was aching and feeling weaker. The cumulative effect of the run and minimal training was catching-up with me.
13 -14 - Straight over...
14-15 - Around the bushes to the Go control.
15-F - I ran fairly well but held back on a faster sprint so that I didn't injure myself.
I felt that I ran a better race than the day before. My right leg was a factor more toward the end as was being out of shape but there was truly pain that wouldn't normally be part of such a run. Instead of just my right quadriceps, my right calf felt involved in the pain too.