Orienteering race (Foot) 2:18:15 [4] *** 16.2 km (8:32 / km) +600m 7:12 / km
spiked:29/31c slept:6.1 weight:179lbs
QOC/SVO: Susquehannah Stumble at Oregon Ridge, Cockeysville, MD. Francis Hogel set the course today. It was warm for October with highs somewhere in the 80s F. I got a decent start trailing Eddie Bergeron, Wyatt Riley, John Torrance, Ted Good, Zachary Barker, and a few others. It was kind of a blur going to #1; faster than I'm used to running these days. I mostly trailed Ted Good through #7.
On the first small window, I went in numric order #5, #6, #7 (CAB).
We took separate routes to #8 with me staying low longer. I may have lost a few seconds on that route but ended about as far apart as we'd started the leg.
Going to #9, I went high to the right. I briefly lost contact with the map but recovered quickly. I never saw Ted after separating early on the leg. Ted went more directly. I went up a ridge headed toward #10 and after crossing a trail near the top, I saw Ted a little bit behind me coming up a reentrant. I crossed the ridge and descended a little but when things didn't look right to me, I stopped. Ted led on going further down to the control.
For the next window, it made sense to leave from #13 (E). For that, going down to #12 seemed best. Rather than climbing to use the trail, going down to the north edge of the map was how we went. After passing the last house, it seemed a long way to the trail. Ted stopped but got going again just ahead of me. Leaving #12 on the trail, I passed Ted and at the trail bend I crossed the reentrant to get to the spur #11 (F). I dropped down to the left and ran up the reentrant to #13 (E).
I ran straight up toward #14. It seemed a long way down the reentrant. I pulled ahead of Ted some more on the climb.
Going to #15, I debated going low through reentrants but ultimately chose staying high, to the left. Once again, I lost contact going this way. I probably hugged the reentrants too closely and as I did, I ended up having to cross a reentrant that I hadn't intended to. As I descended toward #15, I saw Ken Walker climbing, coming away toward #18.
Going to #16, I hit the trail but left it a little early. This put me a bit wide to the right. I hit a depression but there was no control. The control seemed too close to the trail when I got there--was it on the wrong feature?
Going to #17, I passed Ted who was headed to #16, then took a second fall for the day. This one shook me up. I was just reading my map on the run, and stumbled on rocks in the trail. I stuck both arms out in front of me as I'd often done before. This kept my body off of the protruding rocks but during the impact, I could hear an audible crick, like something (cartiledge) broke in my left shoulder. I'd injured this shoulder a year earlier and it took a long time before that got better. It took a while but I got moving again and when I did, I passed the group of Kathleen Lennon, Gayle Ryan, Don Fish, Patti Mace, and Lydia Andrews who were running the Short Stumble. I had just passed Kathleen when it was time to climb up to the control. Since she was then following behind me, Kathleen had put the pressure on me to not make a mistake and I'm glad that I spiked it.
Going to #18, I ran (mostly) straight up the hill. At the east-west trail, I turned left and took the trail around. Descending from th SW to the NE, it seemed a long way down but got there okay.
I skirted the lake on trails, cutting across the woods when it was shorter. I crossed the bridge to the building, ran past the beehive, and descended to the control. Gary Smith was resting there but he got moving again quickly.
I went fairly straight to #20.
For the big window, I ran #22, #21, #25, #26, #23, #26, #25 (L, J, K, I, H, G). Coming out of #21 into the tallest set of nettles (5-6ft.) I'd ever seen, I got sidetracked going around them and headed down the road, over the creek. I realized that this was wrong so I reversed direction (losing just less than a minute) and used the field and trail. It was kind of green in this window so I found it somewhat unpleasant.
Heading into the final loop and crossing fields, I was eager to get out of the hot sun. I hit #28 and #29 easily, then climbed toward #30. There was an extra unmapped charcoal terrace that distracted me near #30. I finally started to cramp-up climbing toward #30, but only in my left leg. I got to #30 and looked back to see a younger racer in blue and white closing-in on me. I took off going downhill and was happy that my cramping went away. Went around most of the trees to get to #31. The finish was much closer than the map showed.
Overall, I felt that I ran pretty well for the little training that I'd done; in earnest, I didn't really start till the last 2 weeks of August.