Orienteering race 53:11 [4] *** 5.7 km (9:20 / km) +140m 8:19 / km
spiked:9/9c slept:7.0 weight:195.8lbs shoes: Innov8-2(Yellow)
10.30am: DVOA Event - Fair Hill -Big Elk Chapel: Green Course
First time running in over 3 weeks and first orienteering since Scottish 6 days! Was hoping the hamstring would hold up and it did. A beautiful sunny day. A really nice course set by Ralph Tolbert with only 9 controls and a good long leg. Started out okay, a little hesitant around the circle into 1. Decided pretty quickly I need to use the compass magnifier I bought at S6D as reading the detail was hard and meant stopping to really get the detail. 1-2: out to the field over to the forest corner and down trail until bend. Went fine until hit trail and instead of just crossing over it decided to go right. Pretty quickly realized contours didn't match so corrected and went into control. 2-3: the silly mistake caused by going too fast. Missed the trail junction and followed wrong path. Didn't realize error until I cut in and hit the other path. 3-4: pretty straight forward -avoided the horses. Not accurate when went into woods and took bearing off wrong knoll so was a bit too south. 4-5: liked this leg went to the right of the stream, avoiding worst of wet marshes and knowing control would be over to right off a tangential stream, kept eyes scanning and saw it about 120m away. 5-6: followed streamers as far as I saw them then to avoid horses I went the the north of the barn and round to trail. Pretty much hit the control right on. 6-7: the long leg. 2 options. Opted for the bridge crossing and trail down through the woods. Worked out fine as stopped at white water stop. The knolls were higher up hill than had thought. 7-8: cut down to path crossing at stream and up hill, round to left to start with and then right below control path. At a u turn on trail cut in to control. 8-9: cut through crap to field and field to control.
Overall felt pretty good and in better shape than feared. Orienteering technique a little sloppy especially early on. Definitely need to practice using compass magnifier. Enough jibbering!!