orienteering race 29:27 [5] *** 2.7 km (10:54 / km) +50m 9:59 / km
20c shoes: Brooks Ghost 11
West Point - Trophy Point Sprint - GreenX (F35+)
So we moved the cars into the middle arena after the middle, only to find most people had gone off on other adventures between the races. Having made no such plans (stupid, for some reason I thought everyone would just hang out for 5 hours?) we lined the cars up in a row and opened the windows and talked between them. It got very windy and rained and even hailed a bit.
Finally it was time to take the bus to the sprint start. I got there kind of early and it was cold and raining on and off. Found the nice warm indoor bathroom nearby.
When it was time to start, flipped over the map and had trouble finding the triangle. The first leg to 1 was downhill on wet, slippery grass that was already chewed up a bit into mud. With no spikes and no ankle braces I had to move extremely tentatively, so not off to a great start.
Over to the corner where 2 is, didn't see it, looked up, read description, saw it must be above. Up stairs, around corner, some guy in a suit wandering around up there, past him to control.
Out to 3, easy.
Went too far on way to 4, to bridge that goes to parking lot, then realized I could only get there via stairs I had already passed. Back to stairs, over hole in railing, behind building (squeeze past BBQ grill).
Kid who was there with me went down metal grate stairs/bridge with sign pointing to garden. I could not make out whether this was a viable route with an exit at other end, so I ended up going back up steps, around buildings, back down steps to 5.
Up steps one last time and down sidewalk in front of iconic buildings to 6. A group of cadets was coming along in dress uniform in some kind of formation, so I scooted to get ahead of them in case they turned where I needed to go next!
Down that diagonal walk to 7, then down the sidewalk and steps to 8 coming out underneath the tunnel. 9-10-11 were cool in this castle like structure having to read inside and outside corners.
Down stairs and through garden to 12, then up steps and south of the large building (probably too far south) to 13. Around the corner of the wall to 14.
I did get caught out by the trap on 15, approaching the awning and then looking at my clue sheet to see it was beneath. So I went around the West end. Easy run down to 16, then back around that West end again and across the lot to 17.
Straight shot to 18, down through the grass having to be cautious again and around the East end of the wall to 19. Over to the stairs to 20 and then into the building to finish. Even though I had heard rumors of the indoor finish at the start, I was momentarily stunned by the lights, noise, and amount going on visually inside the doors and for a moment didn't know where to run. (The map shows the chute on a slight angle when it was actually straight, I think just to make it clear that finish is inside by having the circle entirely indoors.)
A very, very fun sprint with lots of cool elements and the indoor finish was neat. I learned from this that I need to read ahead better on sprints, as well as checking clue descriptions earlier and not just when I think I'm approaching the control.