Orienteering 1:24:00 [3] 3.06 mi (27:27 / mi) +799ft 22:00 / mi
shoes: PVM17
Foutainhead
Brown Course
8 controls, 3.7 km, 225 m
Acutal Distance Traveled: 4.9 km
Actual Climb: 244 m
This was my first time really orienteering since February. The last event I "really" orienteered at was Patapsco/CCBC. That event was 9 months ago to the day, on Feb 3. Since then I helped at the Wheaton meet in March by showing up to help with control pickup. I also helped at the beginner's event in July which was also held at Wheaton. I roamed the park but I didn't do one of the courses afterwards. Roughly 4 weeks ago, I was the meet director for the meet at Patuxent but I didn't get the opportunity to get out into the woods.
I helped out with Beginner Instruction today from 11:30 to 1. I helped a few people out but for the most part I just stood around and talked to other volunteers.
I started the course a little after 1 PM. It wasn't extremely difficult but it felt like at advanced course. The only part that felt a little unlike an advanced course to me was the thrid and fourth controls which were very close to one another. Sometimes that is done to guide the competitors along a particular route. I didn't see any such rationale here why these two controls were so close together and both part of the brown Course and were to be visited sequentially.
I got a little lost on the trip from 4 to 5. I knew I was headed in the right direction but I took off without really plotting a course. I was expecting to hit a trail and use that to help me get closer to 5. I found a trail but it was unclear if it was the right one. Eventually I thought that maybe it wasn't but I thought that I might be close to 6. Moving off of that hunch I turned off the trail and headed into the re-entrant to the left of the trail. I found 6 exactly where I thought it might be. After that it was fairly easy to find my way to 5 although there was a fair amount of elevation change along the way to 5 and then also on the route back to 6.
The rest of the course went smoothly. Considering when I started, how long it took me to finish the course, and the fact that I probably wasn't in shape to do a much longer course, I think I made the right choice in choosing to do Brown, today.
I was pleasantly surprised to see I finished 11th out of 32. That is a high finish for me.