Orienteering race 1:00:09 [4]
US Classic Champs Day 2 and Boulder Dash. Had some problems today. On #2, I considered going straight but the woods looked thick so I took the trail to the white woods and cut the corner to the yellow logging road in the "Lungs" area. Cool area. I misjudged my location when I reached the yellow and took what I thought was the short south fork, but was mistaken if only I would have looked over my shoulder to the right when I reached the yellow. Oh well. I cut on too early found a boulder cluster near the stream (but not near enough in reality) and began searching. I worked my way back through the area and finally decided to bail out to the yellow again taking it farther. I quickly figured out where I was and went right to the control. 15 min leg--ouch. On #3, it went OK, but I lost about 90 sec being lured off to a nearby control, but one which allowed me to relocate quickly.
The next several went well until #7 which I overshot being so excited to be running hard on the yellow trail. Lost about 90 sec here, too. Eight was a little slow but I took a safe route, so it was clean. Nine was a double blunder. It was hard to head NE toward the yellow path which I hoped to take to the ruined stone wall and into the control. I drifted east and hit the junction of the yellow and the road, so I took the road to the junction. Trying to be very careful here, I checked my map which was folded very small making it difficult to confirm that I needed to head N. after fumbling for a bout 20 sec unfolding my map until I could find a control number unequivocally oriented to north (which was "5" because I couldn't be sure that 9, 8, 6, or 1 was right side up). Ah, the things our (my) brains do when orienteering under stress.
I finally got my bearing and headed toward the stone wall, but veered off again hitting the road again! Feeling supremely stupid, I finally managed to flow the wall back to the control, punch, and head toward the final comtrol and finish. Not my best race.
I got lucky though because Linda Kohn did not have a great race either, so my combined time was enough for the championship. I was happy about that.