orienteering race 1:06:09 [4] **** 5.8 km (11:24 / km) +85m 10:38 / km
spiked:6/10c shoes: VJ Integrator #3
US Champs, Day 1, Happy Valley WMA (CNYO). Since I'll be turning 50 this year, I decided to take one shot at running my age group at the first opportunity, and signed up for Green. I've never won at the Two-Day Champs, though that can be attributed in large part to the fact that up through 2007 I always ran Blue. Then in '08 and '10 I ran M45 and finished 7th and 3rd (and for some reason I didn't go out to WI in '09 when the event was a one-day).
Started out the course quite fine when I hit the start box and nothing happened. Hmm, I guess I was supposed to clear first, huh? No matter, trot back, find a clear box, and start 30 seconds or so late. Great for concentration. And then I started out on a pretty appalling run. Around the north side of the pond on #1 (no big deal), lost contact approaching #2 then overshot and relocated on a cairn and recovered, got lucky on the next couple, then on #5 I crossed the marsh at a great spot, and I was probably within 150 m of the control, but I thought I was much further to the right, so I turned left and headed off into oblivion, off the map completely. Utterly inexcusable, and I'm fortunate to have lost only 7 minutes or so on that boondoggle (I wound up coming in from the south along the valley bottom). I had my act more or less together for the next three, but on #9, due to inattention I drifted waaaaay too far to the right, and only noticed that things were weird when I encountered some ponds, which were the ones adjacent to the start field, which I then ran through. Despite this ludicrous route, I think I had a faster split on the leg than Jeff did. And for dessert, I left #9 thinking I was going from #10 to the finish, but I was also way off on direction, so I was baffled by the lack of open area but going the right way (when I hit the stone wall halfway there, I came to my senses).
I knew that this wasn't a very good run, and then when I sat down, the first person I was chatting with was Jeff, who had the best time on the course, and that really confirmed my feelings, seeing how far back I was. Looked like almost all of the deficit was due to my being blunderstruck on #5. I think it was still something like the 6th best time on the course, but it left me in third place on M50, 6 minutes or so back, which was clearly too much to make up. Although I had signed up for the event with optimism, I had realized when I saw that Nadim, Tim, and Kevin were in there as well that even hopes for a medal were slim. Fortunately, Nadim really blew up, so if I could hold it together on Sunday, I could still get Bronze.