Orienteering race (Ottawa O Fest 2011) 2:37:00 [5] 7.3 km (21:30 / km)
shoes: Inov-8 X-Talon 212
I don't want to talk about this race right now. Hahaha! More to come later. :)
UPDATE:
Ok ok the gory details, as promised:
First off, it took me roughly 3 weeks to decide whether or not I wanted to run this. The morning of, I still wasn't even sure! Decided to suck it up and just do it. Bought a gel 15 minutes before the race, stuffed it in my pocket, did some warm-up stuff that I doubt helped in any way, cleared and checked an excessive amount, tried not to cry and tried to focus on the upcoming test...all like a real elite racer, right?
Started off well, then got pulled too far east by other runners in the area. Head was not in it yet! Control 2 was amazingly easy- it was only 100 or so meters away but still! Took 3 slow and steady.
Then it started to get sloppy...
Had the perfect route in mind for control 4 but veered too far north and started following the wrong lake. Turned around quick enough and found it easily after that. Off to 5 and I had a lot of thinking to do. These long legs are tough! Never experienced that before! Doubted myself the entire way until I was sure I was lost. As it turns out I was exactly where I wanted to be, roughly 200m from the control, on the other side of a perfectly crossable dam. Had some gel with water.
6 I took the easy way: up to the road and back in a couple hundred m later. 7 and 8 were straightforward and simple. Slow and steady still the theme of the day. Then it happened......
I was perfectly on course for #9. Every map feature made sense to me and I was following my bearing without trouble. No pond, no control. Relocated to a high point. Back in. Nothing. Relocated again on the other side of where I thought it should have been. Again nothing. This went on for a good half hour... Decided to head dead south and hit the trail, then relocate from there. When I think of it now and look at my map, I realize I must have been exhausted. I had assumed that the trail was this elephant track that followed the high open areas. In reality I would have had to descend a steep hill to the trail, but that never happened. Continued on make-believe-elephant-track-trail until I decided to give up on 9 and search for 10.
Met up with a girl on my course. She said she was looking for 11. 11? I was sure I was in the area of 10 still! When I looked at my map again I realized exactly where I was. Found 11, then 12. Then it all got blurry again. Straight bearing to 13 and couldn't find the trail.
Enough was enough, I was going on 2 and a half hours. Bailed north, out to the highway and ran back to the finish, dehydrated and upset.
I still have half of my gel. I'll use the rest next time...