Running warm up/down (Street & Trail) 5:00 [1] 0.5 mi (10:00 / mi)
slept:7.5
McFarlan Woods, Cincinnati, OH. Warm-up for the Flying Pig Long event. I jogged over to the start with Mike Eglinski and then jogged back and forth on a trail till it was my turn to go.
Orienteering (Foot) 1:11:10 [4] *** 8.2 km (8:41 / km) +400m 6:59 / km
ahr:157 max:188 spiked:11/14c
McFarlan Woods, Cincinnati, OH. OCIN: Flying Pig Long. This was really a classic course distance with 3 long legs and a few to test raw power on repeated hill climbs. Overall it was pretty fun but I could have enjoyed it with less climbing. I started 4 minutes after Michael Eglinski and a minute ahead of the eventual M20 and Red course winner. I was caught by the latter person a little before finishing the long leg to #1. After #1 I'd caught sight of and ran either in front of or behind Tori Borish for many controls. I was moving a little faster but would make a small mistake or less optimal route and we'd be back together again. On the way to #11, I saw Vadim Masalkov chasing Michael Eglinski. Tori dropped off, Vadim pulled ahead and I chased Michael to #12. We ran parallel to #13 but I pulled ahead going down the last bit. I was struggling with the climb out to the Go control and saw not only Michael Eglinski closing in while on a steep climb, but also Greg Balter who was running Blue. Overall, I finished 5th in a fairly tough M45+ field. I was well behind Mark Voit's leading M45+ 63 minute Red course finish but only a little over 2 minutes out of third place (Ted Good was third and Eric Buckley was second in 67 minutes. A Canadian was not far off Ted's time). I feel it's a good result for me given the shape that I'm in. The courses were not very technically difficult but they were physical.
A negative to take back is that with 2 3-day orienteering weekends in a row my left knee, the one operated on last summer, is feeling the toll. It doesn't recover as quickly as this amount of orienteering puts wear and tear on it. It was throbbing after the meet similar to the warning signs I had before the disasterous QOC Wheaton meet over a year ago when I pretty much had to stop running for several months. I took some Motrin that my orthopedist perscribed but that I hadn't touched since last summer when I had the operation--it was fortunate for me that Peggy had brought it along. At least I'll have a break for the next two weeks from orienteering racing. The orienteering racing seems to put the most stress on my knee.