Orienteering race 11:55:28 [5] 32.54 mi (21:59 / mi) +1150m 19:49 / mi
shoes: Solomon Speedcross - Green
Python Rogaine - 12 h - Team: Topo the Mountain
We only had an hour to plan, so Kevin took the lead. We decided on a generally CCW loop with a route that hit all the CPs. It didn't look like we would clear the course though, so we left a loop of 10 pointers near the start/finish that we could get at the end if we had time.
The race started at 8 a.m. and the crowd quickly thinned out until we were on our own headed to the first CP. Perfect. We saw a few of the same teams at different points in the race, they must have planned a similar route to ours, but we were mostly on our own. The map was fantastic and the navigation went quite well. We were moving really well through the first half. Stopped at a corn maze to find 3 CPs in there. Kevin's legs started bothering him so we cut back on running. He perked up in a couple hours, but then my feet started hurting. At this point we just started going in straight lines to all the CPs since we weren't moving fast enough on trails to justify going around. It worked quite well, and kept the navigation more interesting. To get to the finish we had to navigate our way through a haunted hay ride which was actually quite disorienting. It didn't help that we weren't supposed to be seen in the area so we had to turn off our lights and wait for a bit whenever a tractor drove through.
Finished first team, maybe 3rd overall? Got 65/76 controls, only dropping 10 pointers. The map was fantastic and the flags were well placed (with the exception of one water control, but we saw the gallons of water from a ways off). And it was a beautiful day!