Orienteering race 53:41 [4] 4.5 km (11:56 / km)
shoes: Inov8 X-Talon 212
Canadian Middle Champs
The much hyped new Lewes Lake map. I was nervous to begin with, but felt a little better after getting out on the warm up map, then talking to Graeme which confirmed my tactic - to stay high as much as possible.
The first half up to the spectator control was pretty much perfect. Stayed to plan, the ridge lines were perfect linear feature to get from one control to the other.I
was picking off all the clearings, green patches and knolls perfectly and I felt like I was flowing well and reading ahead. It was a pretty conservative technique and I never got close to winning a split, but for my current technical form I think it was the best way to go.
Then I blew it. Straight after the spectator run through I drop 3 minutes on the next control. I was right on line, but the feature was higher up in the depression than I expected and I run the length of the big depression checking every 'cup' depression for the flag.
Get to the circle eventually to see Eric running though. We split, but meet up again at #12. He exits the same way I want to go and is flying, so, I sit behind him and try to keep up. Of course, I loose contact - so I stop, attempt to relocate and drop into the depression I think is the right one.
12 or so minutes later, I punch 13. A GPS would be useful here.
Fairly unmotivated, I jog the last few controls.
Before the carnival, I kind of expected a result like this for this race, but I didn't expect it to happen in this fashion (small mistake leading to a larger one, distracted by another competitor).
A little frustrating. I knew a placing was unlikely today, but a clean race and the feeling of conquering the terrain would have been satisfying.