HVO Local Meet, Blue Mountain
A really nice area to orienteer, and a really nice course by Dave Webber. Having to pre-copy maps was slightly annoying, as were the missing punches on about a third of the controls, but the most important things were excellent (map and courses.)
As I started, Joe appeared out of nowhere and announced he was starting right after me. I am pretty certain he was hanging out in his car waiting for me to start just so he could go after me and bug me out on the course. Sure enough, I took a bad route to #1 (there was construction on the hillside by the lodge east of the pond, and that slowed me down a bunch), and Joe punched just ahead of me. I was feeling pretty bad physically and could not get ahead of Joe for several controls. He was quite smooth and precise in his orienteering, and my attempts to take better micro-routes kept failing. Finally, my route to 7 was slightly better (he went straight over the second hill, while I went around to the south), and I got just ahead. I then went straight on the line to 8, while Joe took the trail, and I thought I was finally alone. However, the time I wasted searching for the punch at 8 was enough for him to catch up, and we were together again. I was slightly ahead to 9 and 10, but then veered right off the line (+0:30) going to 11, and Joe got back ahead. I again tried something different to 12, going to the trail, but Joe popped out on the trail right with me. I was a bit faster and got in front, and then took a better route to 13: I went through the gap between the two green hills, while Joe took the trail that ran to the west of the hills and then had to climb up to the control. Seeing that I had a bit of a gap, I decided to go straight over the top to 14, rather than around the hill to the north, so that Joe wouldn't be able to see me as he approached 13. This seemed to work, as I never saw him again. Fast and clean to 15, a very satisfying leg that involved running along narrow valleys between ridges - this is somehow pleasing. Then ran too far to the south going to 16, but recovered quickly at the stone wall (+0:30). Trail around to 17, and then waiting for Joe. Pleased to get him by about a minute. Even though I was annoyed at him at first for starting right after me, it actually made for a really fun back-and-forth that probably made both of us run harder than we would have otherwise.
QuickRoute:
http://www.dxdeluxe.se/linnekartparmen/show_map.ph...
Results:
http://hvo.us.orienteering.org/News/article/sid=22...
Joe's version of events, slightly different from mine:
http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_25/per...