Orienteering race 1:37:32 [4] *** 13.5 km (7:13 / km) +350m 6:24 / km
spiked:18/21c shoes: 2006 VJ Falcons
Team Trials Classic.
Started last again, but this time didn't have great focus from the start, and could feel the hamstring the entire way. Messed up the first "real" control quite badly - came into with no attack point and paid for it badly, losing two minutes. Slowed down and got back into rhythm, but never really felt like i had great flow the entire race. Ran well through 9, but then did tons of stupid things on the way to 10, such as getting caught up in vines in the middle of a wide-open powerline, tripping over a broken fence at full speed, and crossing the same river three times. This amounted to about 1:30 lost, i think. Immediately afterward i paid no attention to my bearing on the way to 11 and lost another two minutes right away, though some of that time loss may be due to slow speed on the trail, as my hamstring was hurting pretty bad at that point. It got better later in the course, and i was pretty clean the rest of the way and was satisfied with the results when i finished, as i did wat i had to do to qualify. Mission accomplished.
By the way, this was a really enjoyable weekend of orienteering, with great terrain, excellent course setting, good organization, and very quickl results, all of this done by a handful of people. So thanks a lot to Erick Buckley and SLOC, as well as everyone else who helped out! Also, it was awesome to see everybody after so much time away from US orienteering. It really felt like coming home to a big, loveable, dysfunctional family.