Orienteering race (Relay) 32:56 [5] *** 2.77 km (11:53 / km) +110m 9:55 / km
shoes: Nike Trail (Blue)
US Relay Championships, Team YipYap:
Leg 1: Orange: me
Leg 2: Yellow: Candice R.
Leg 3: Green: Bob Turbyfill
Leg 4: Red: Gerald Yip
This is my second ever Orienteering Relay. My first was in 1986 at West Tyson in St. Louis. I owe it to Spike and his blog that I have made relays a priority for my own orienteering interests. I asked to set the US Relay Championships last year (2006), and overall, that was an amazing experience. I love relays, and I think clubs need to have more of them.
Gerald and I tried to put together an OCIN team unsuccessfully, so we put our names on a list Saturday morning. With about an hour to go, the sign-up sheet had four names who added up to 8 points. So---An 8-pt team it was.
At the start, there was no way I was going straight up the big hill. The trail was there, and I knew my legs would be dead for the whole course if I didn't take the trail. I was really surprised most people went straight.
Going in to 1, I saw Valerie Meyer and Barb going in in front of me. Barb was much faster, but between Val and me it became a death match. A slow death match. It's been a few years since I pushed this hard in a race.
I screwed up 4, a really short leg, by getting too far right and lost at least 90 seconds. I took the trail to 5, which looking at it afterwards was clearly a big mistake. I didn't see the huge rock wall catching feature, and I most certainly chickened out. Val beat me on this leg by going straight.
She was up the hill toward 6 in front of me, pulling away, but I made up a little on the descent into 6. I didn't see her again until later. As I was going downhill to 6, 3 cadets went by me off to the left. We met at 6 and raced downhill to 7, then into the field and to the spectator control. That downhill field was amazing, and I was moving pretty fast.
In the control picking section, I hestitated at the first break in the thicket, then went to the second one. I did really well in this section, but anything uphill was just a slog. The cadets were comical to watch. They can run really fast, but they weren't good navigators. (Admittedly, these were the less experienced cadets.) On the easy controls, they'd be standing there looking at their maps as I punched, and on the hard controls they'd see where I was going, and then beat me to the punch. A tiny bit more fitness, and I probably could have dropped these guys instead of leading them around the course. Somewhere in the last few controls, Valerie passed me again, and we were struggling to gain on each other. In the end, I beat her by a little bit. The death match was pretty cool. Valerie's a lot more interesting an opponent than the three cadets. And she's usually faster than me in sprints, so...{trash talk omitted}.
Note
I was really, really impressed with the organization and courses. Joe's sprints and map were fun and interesting, and very spectator friendly.
PG's relays courses were very fun and interesting---I really want to try the Green---and the spectator aspects were awesome. He had a lot better flow control around the event center than I did last year, and he told me the one Red control near the parking lot should have been in the open on the edge of the parking lot to add even more spectator interest.
I am so amazed by Val and Sandy's e-punch set up. It almost runs itself during the download process.
It was a long drive, but I'm so glad I did it.