Orienteering long (Lowlander) 5:20:48 [3] **** 16.35 km (19:37 / km) +564m 16:44 / km
spiked:11/12c slept:6.5 shoes: Trail NB 706 9D # 2
Lowlander at the Hudson Highlander, nominally 13.2 km. Donna Fluegel stuck with me. My FR recorded 16.09; Donna's measured 16.6 km. Mine usually reads short against Glen's as well, so I'm inclined to think it underestimates.
First leg was 4.5 km, and road routes were not allowed. We followed trails almost the whole way, arriving at #1 at about 84 minutes in. Only did a bit of jogging, though. I've not really been doing a lot of orienteering specific training, and have nagging problems with various joints and didn't want to do more damage, so was moving conservatively (and still had some tweaks and twinges, and one fall near the end where I slipped on a rock on the stream crossing and banged my left shin). One bee sting, I think, on the right knee, after dropping into the reentrant after the King/Queen of the Hill leg (there's a small red spot there, and it felt a bit like a sting).
I thought the K-of-the-H leg was going to be killer but it wasn't as bad as I first thought, and I was SO glad I did it because the clearing just before the control had the BEST view I've ever seen in Harriman, southeast to the Hudson, and south to the City. The rolling hills and mountains of the park were pretty too. A group of Asians were having a picnic just off the trail near there but right on the route to the flag; I wonder how many others they saw (one woman pointed in the direction of the flag which I had already spotted).
I'm not sure I'm going to be able to move tomorrow. We'll see if I can make it to exercise class. :-)
G&S got two new cats from the shelter yesterday. It was so much fun watching the younger one zooming around their living room about as fast as she could go. The other one (Breezy) was much more reserved and didn't poke her head out of her hiding place much. They were thinking of naming the younger one Cloudy (for markings) to go along with the weather theme, but I'm thinking Tornado is more apt!
We missed #3, at least, a bit low and had to climb up the spur through some laurel. #8 seemed far, far away, and having someone on the HH course(?) go by helped boost our confidence, so I'm not counting that one as a miss.
Added FR track.