Orienteering race 1:31:31 [3]
Manitou Green course. I really had intended to run this course, but on the way to #1, I was feeling shaky and weak and tired. Not sure what that was about, but I ratcheted it down and took it easy instead. I still managed to mangle #3 - I was too low, overshot it to the trail, and then double-backed in to it. I missed #11 even worse...a total parallel error. I thought I was on one trail, but really I was on another one further north. Of course I could make everything match up until I got to the spot where the control should be, and it wasn't there. Time to relocate, which didn't take too long, but I was pretty far from the control. Drat.
AOWN - I was heading to #5 when I got a faint whiff of something dead. As I kept going, it got stronger and stronger, until finally I was totally enveloped by the smell and afraid I was going to step in whatever it was. At the last second, I saw what it was before I got on top of it...a very dead, very mangled elk that looked like it had been eaten by a mountain lion. The carcass was half meat, half bones, with the ribs sticking out and the head twisted grotesquely back. And flies everywhere. I stumbled away, unable to get away from the scent and almost vomited. So pleasant.