Orienteering race (forest/parkland) 1:46:50 [3] 18.4 km (5:48 / km)
ahr:155 max:170 shoes: inov-8 x-talon 190
POM Day 4 long, ME 16.6km (39/54)
Well, I'm lying on my hotel room bed so I made it up the stairs obviously. It did take some effort mentally but not as bad as expected - drama queen, no surprise.
What really wasn't expected was that I would make the chasing start. Only by 1 second (yes, really) but still proud of myself.
Got myself around the first hilly section and then through some longer legs. After that something that resembled a pack finally formed and there were 5 or 6 of us. We missed 10 slightly, then 2 of us dropped off and at the start of the butterfly at 11 I went off around my first wing alone. 2 difficult controls followed, I missed the first, circling around losing as much as 1 min but nailed the second and ran off from there with renewed confidence and determination.
Lost another minute missing the first of the second wing then had a gel at the end of the butterfly, about 70 minutes in.
After that it was straightforward and was surprised with how much energy I had left. Before the spectator loop I wasted 30 seconds looking for my control too early and after I drifted off and got stuck behind a barrier of fight.
So my worst technical performance of the week losing approx 4 minutes total. The big plus however is that I got 4 days in a row of quality physical training and didn't come away feeling like I didn't deserve to be running the elite course.