Orienteering 15:22 [4] 3.55 km (4:20 / km) +100m 3:48 / km
NM Sprint Final. 3rd.
Haha, what a cool race. I'd been looking forward to today, knowing Boyan and Elise were course setters. The qual didn't disappoint, and neither did the final. Such well planned courses and used the area really well.
The final started in old industrial stuff around the river, crossing back and forth with route choices around which bridges to use. I could see my 1min girl already from the first control given in the in-and-out nature of the the controls, which gave me that extra burst. Happy with my routes, keeping it simple rather than going for the absolute fastest on a couple of the legs. Made a slip in concentration on 5-6 as I read ahead to the long leg, starting down the wrong side of a building and losing 5s. Aside from that though, I was very very clean through the first half.
After #7 we were into the main business/apartment buildings further down the river. Some multi-story fun before heading through to the arena passage. I got ahead of my 1min girl on the route choices into the arena. Got some solid excited cheers from the HSK crew as i came through the arena, but no word from the speaker until I was most of the way up the hill to #12 - when I heard I was well in the lead.
A classic last loop - gut gusting climb up to #12 before turning and heading down into the complex apartments for the last few controls. I knew this was the case and had it cleanly planned in my head.
Unfortunately though, my head and legs got out of sync on 14-15. Plan was past one building, down the stairs, turn right onto the ramp with the control on it. But oxygen-debt is a bitch. I forgot that I'd achieved the "run past one building" in step one of the plan. So after going down the stairs, I turned left to go past said building. Oops. Through the underpass in the building and suddenly there was a big wall in front of me?! Took a couple of seconds for my oxygen starved brain to figure it all out and turn around. By the time I got to #15 my 1min girl had re-caught up.
Through the last controls cleanly, but honestly, I figured such a big mistake would put me back to about 10th in the field, so lost a bit of zip in the last couple of controls. Was annoyed in the finish, and fairly disbelieving when the other girls told me it looked like I'd get a medal.
Ended up in bronze, 32s back from Ingeborg. I was leading from the start up to my mistake (25s loss), but to be honest, I had a fast start and Ingeborg was catching time through the second half. I think even without the mistake she may have got me by a handful of seconds. But we'll never know.
Very satisfied with third, and honestly, I think it's pretty funny a kiwi could be leading NM champs for the most part of the course (unless that Kiwi was Tim of course).
PS. For those interested in debate/discussion, I have another feasible reason for my costly mistake at the end: you see, I accidentally packed two Left socks for the race. I always thought L and R socks were a BS marketing ploy to make people buy more socks after they inevitably lost one, but apparently not. As obviously, when my brain was too weak to overcome the pull of the socks, I automatically turned left! This seems plausible enough that from now on I will be carefully checking my packing for each race!)
PPS. I have noticed my typo with "gut gusting". I actually originally mistyped it as "but busting" but didn't correct it properly obviously. Personally I think both terms are better than "gut busting" which is what I was originally going for.