Orienteering 1:03:40 [3] *** 3.59 mi (17:44 / mi) +513ft 15:37 / mi
shoes: Asics Gel Contend 2 April 2015
Powder Mills Green course. I was in 5th place out of 7 when I left, not real impressive. I had a few bobbles which I suspect cost me a total of maybe 5-7 minutes -- it will be interesting to see what AP split analysis says.
Edit: I wound up 5th out of 9 starters. AP said I had about 8 minutes of errors which I totally believe.
#1: I lost some time due partly to some hesitations about where or not to cross the small stream that runs E-W (I finally did), and partly within the circle when I first went to where the ditch really ends (at least the part that should be mappable) which kind of to the E edge of the circle. The map shows the ditch extending further W but there really isn't much left of the ditch and it should probably not be mapped (since I did the map, it appears that I'm the culprit here).
#8: I headed more of less straight from 7 to 8, at least that was my intent, but I got a bit off line and came out to the left of 8; took me 30 seconds or so to figure out where I was and make my way to 8.
#9: I wasn't paying attention to trails, and I wound up confused by the trail junction about 100 m N of the control. I took the wrong trail for a short bit but realized it was going downhill way too much, so I backtracked to the junction and finally figured things out.
#12: I took a non-optimum way across the stream/marsh -- should have just gone a bit south and gone across the trail that goes kind of N-S to the other side.
#13: I lost a small amount of time when I tripped and fell on a very non-technical section of the trail. It was a bit disconcerting because I REALLY wanted to avoid falling on my previously-broken wrist. I managed to tuck in and not hit the ground very hard with the wrist, so no damage done except to my confidence. Then I headed up on the plateau and got a bit off track, before I found the flag.
#14: I was taking it very easy going down the steep hill, so as to not fall again, plus I took a less than ideal route (too far left), but my main goal was to get down uninjured rather than in the fastest possible way.
I seemed to do pretty well relative to others on the grid-O, which was a bit surprising because I felt that I was proceeding cautiously, not wanting to MP and have to repeat the grid.