Note
Well, here I am, defending corn maze Sprint champion and a member of the red group on the Classic. I had nightmares about the event last night, in which I had to go back to my car for something, and wound up missing my start. Although I was allowed to run the Classic late, I missed out on the Sprint entirely. Clearly, I'm under pressure here, and I should probably have some sort of goal. Matching my performance from last year is probably unrealistic, so I have come up with something to strive for that I think I at least stand a chance for:
Beat Phil.
orienteering race 25:35 [3] *** 2.56 km (9:59 / km)
spiked:12/18c shoes: Nike Initiator
CMOUSA Classic, Mike's Maze. Hard to say exactly how many I spiked, and some of the mistakes weren't so bad (turning in one block too early, or having to circle around looking for the entrance to a letter), but in some other cases I went down some long dead end and then backed out. Two of my routes went along the west side of the map, which turns out to have never been the optimal choice. A pretty medicre performance, but as Peter said, you read the results from the top down for time, or from the bottom up for integrity. Still, I'm not without transgressions, and in particular I recall one spot on the way from 16 to 17 where I found myself looking down a long clean corridor that I intended to run to its end, and then have to start zigging and zagging, but I was surprised to find myself in Noah's ascot, an extra trail apparently having appeared in the terrain.
The GPS track turned out substantially better than I expected, although I should have reconfigured it for 1 second recording (I normally have it set for 3 second). I'll post it later, it looks like my actual route can be discerned pretty well.
orienteering race 3:20 [4] *** 0.45 km (7:21 / km)
spiked:5/6c shoes: Nike Initiator
CMOUSA Sprint. Third place, which isn't too bad, really. Caught up to Ali at the fourth control, I think. The only real error was at the last control, when she went to the last Classic control, and I was prepared for this, already having done the opposite in the first race, but the zigging and zagging cost me a few seconds. I got around both races without glasses, which was okay, although there may have been a few times when they woudl have been useful (like determining whether a flash of white through the cornstalks was a control or a sign). I think this might be a slightly different experience earlier in the year, when the leaves on the cornstalks are more lush and the ability to see through the maze walls is lower. I'll also note that although the Mike's Maze designs last year and this year are excellent, and very well suited to CMO, they are pretty different from typical corn mazes which tend to have a lot more corn and less total trail length, with substantially thicker walls. Earlier mazes at Mike's were more like the mainstream ones.
orienteering 7:00 [2] *** 0.66 km (10:36 / km)
spiked:3/3c shoes: Nike Initiator
CMO control pickup.