orienteering race 3:22:55 [5] 19.1 km (10:37 / km)
this race was just a tad intimidating especially when i looked at my control card and saw that there were only 17 controls over 19km... eekk!!! once i got going it was lots of fun and i really only had trouble with bearings. i knew that i always had troubles running in a straight line, so i was super focused on actually alternating between left and right around trees and stuff. this backfired though because i kept forgeting to keep an eye on my compass and i always ended up wayy off anyways. good thing there were lots of catching features!! :) i toodled along for the first 8 controls until some red runners caught up and then i actually started racing! the distance really wasn't much of a problem, it was when i was on my way to control 13 and i got a whole twiggy branch shoved into my eye by some really mean tree. after that happened everything was all blurry and i was so worried about going blind or having to wear an eyepatch and become a pirate that i couldn't focus on anything anymore so 14 was a disaster... 15 involved lots of crawling through green on balancing across logs over a sea of deadly raspberry bushes. 16 wasn't much better either cause i did an 90 degree error out of 15 and then just didn't go down the hill far enough. my goodness gracious it was a tough last couple km. i finished though and if i just don't think about that last part then i could say that it was boatloads of fun! oh and my eye is better it just took a day or so.
