Orienteering race 1:08:31 [4] *** 7.82 km (8:46 / km) +261m 7:31 / km
spiked:13/13c shoes: VJ Falcons 5
US Champs Long at Letchworth SP East. Green Y course (6.6km SL, 225m climb, 13 controls). Good course by Lindsay Worner.
Had a good run with some small time losses in execution or route choice but probably only could have been 2-3 minutes faster.
-Saw the left route to #1, avoiding the vegetation and using the indistinct trail right to the control.
-Took the trail and ridge (esker?) route to 4 and attacked off where one of the little streams crosses the trail. The vegetation in the area didn't look like what the map said, but I hit the control OK (GPS track shows that the flag was in the circle, though maybe not dead center).
-Got a little confused at the trail-stream junction because the trail is in a bit of a gully there so it looks like there are two side streams coming in. Also, the vegetation coming out of 4 was thicker than expected so I dropped down the hill to avoid it.
-Intended to go pretty straight to 6 just skirting the steepest climb to the left. Drifted further left than intended, crossing the stream at the trail, then headed straight up the big reentrant once I figured out where I was. Stayed right of the green and saw the larger reentrant east of the one with the control in it.
-7 and 8 were stratightforward but I can't figure out what the purpose of 8 was. It certainly didn't set up a route choice decision for the 8-9 leg. I would have placed this control 350-400m south of 7 in the small side reentrant just beyond the flat ridge top to set up a much better route choice to 9.
-Took the road route to 9 and slogged it out. Plenty of time to plan the rest of the course.
-Executed the plan to 11 (minimize climb) but had a bit of trouble finding the pit since the medium green vegetation in the area wasn't as distinct as expected.
-Was planning to cut through the green and take the trail to 12 but the white woods out to the road looked good so I went that way instead.
Found them all, in the right order- good enough for 1st in M60 and 8th overall on Green Y. AP says I lost no time.