Orienteering race 2:49:40 [4] *** 12.89 km (13:10 / km) +357m 11:34 / km
spiked:18/25c slept:8.25
US Team Trials Long - Blue. Started out with a decent performance - only about 2 minutes behind JJ after 8 controls. Then back-to-back long legs should have been great for me, but I fouled them up. On the way to C9, I was able to stick with the trails, even though folks had tried to hide them in places, piling up brush (to stop mountain bikers?), until I must not have seen the last right turn that I wanted to get me to my attack point and I had to wander a bit to relocate. Lost 7-8 minutes. Also failed to track the trails leaving C9, and wound up over at the airfield, which was a bit out of the way.
Had another nice stretch, until, suprisingly, the next long leg, to C18. Again it was the green that was my downfall. It took me forever to fight thru to the campground to the east - I never did see the open, scattered trees area that was supposed to be on the way. By the time I got out, both of my shoes needed to be retied, and a couple of O'ers got by me. I had no trouble walking them down on the trails, though. C20 was a disaster - thought I had the correct line, but lost about 8.5 minutes when the flag wasn't past the hill I expected. For C22 I was a victim of the poor mapping they had advertised. I kept getting hung up in medium-to-dark green areas that didn't seem to be mapped that way. The rest was OK, except I was pretty worn out (and I ended up running over 360 degrees around C23).
I definitely need to improve my execution of long legs. They should be an advantage for me, but right now they are hurting me.
Running warm up/down 10:00 [2] 1.11 mi (9:01 / mi)
Walked to the start to see about an earlier start for Walt, then jogged about halfway back, then jogged most of the way to the start again.