Orienteering race (NAOC Long) 1:10:44 [4] *** 5.4 km (13:06 / km) +225m 10:50 / km
spiked:10/13c
I haven't had a lot of chance to post this week. Been busy with Federation business, couldn't find a hookup, etc. I'll start today with NAOC and probably get around to posting my US champs stories tomorrow.
I usually prefer to start earlier, but today I had a late start that worked out well for me. With the field so large, I was able to see quite a few of the results before I ran, so I had some idea of what time I was trying to beat. While it was clear that I couldn't hope to match the very top competition in my age class, my closest typical competition had run 1:11ish. This seemed a little tough for me, based on my usual pace, but I kept it in mind.
I had a nice, clean run. Was pretty efficient as well, taking advantage of climbs to plan future routes and really understand the map. Did a nice job of really using attackpoints in my planning to avoid big mistakes. In some cases I didn't actually go all the way to the attackpoint if I was really sure of myself, but it did mean that I always knew where I was and had a quick bailout to stay on course if I got confused. Around #10 I started to believe that I might actually be able to beat that 1:11, so while I started pushing a little, I was also very careful to 11. It seems this is where a lot of others had trouble. It was probably the most difficult route choice problem on the course. I went pretty straight, deciding that the climb was a more sure route and the around route seemed too long to really be faster. Pushed in harder after 11 and was very happy to beat that target time. While I didn't earn a NAOC medal - second US after Peggy makes me pretty happy.