Orienteering (Foot) 15:06 [4] *** 2.1 km (7:11 / km) +50m 6:26 / km
ahr:156 max:171 spiked:13/14c slept:8.0 (injured)
CNYO North American Championships-Preliminary. I started out the weekend pretty well. My goal was just to get through cleanly if not very quickly. I had a few baubles while entering and exiting controls but avoided any larger issues. Going into #4 I had come around from the right side and through the rough open I had read the edge of the field incorrectly. Some green areas near the edge of the mapped distinct boundary confused me so that I ended up too far right of the control. I missed the ride going to #11 but it sounded like that wasn't all that good any way. I felt slow and my splits show it in the open grassy areas. It was my lack of running training showing through. I still have to count this run as a positive one for me given that I'm just glad to be racing at an A-meet again.
Orienteering race (Foot) 24:15 [4] *** 3.5 km (6:56 / km)
ahr:160 max:172 spiked:24/26c (injured)
CNYO North American Championships-Final. After waiting around in the afternoon rains, it was good to finally get going. I ran a fairly smooth race. Like the morning run, I was not very fast but overall I fairly good accuracy for me. Coming out of #4, I hesitated then ran around the long way. As I approached #5, I slowed, expecting to see the control sooner. From my conversations with Ted Good, Tim Good and Mike Eglinski, my route to the left was good. I was a bit unsure what to do at the map exchange area and didn't really flip the map I had until after punching. On the second look, I caught Phil Bricker as we climbed toward #12. I had a better line on it and ran into the reentrant rather than over the rim and down. Phil caught me soon after. I didn't feel that I had the running speed I needed to keep up on the road. He lead me through just about the rest of the way through the second loop. I didn't realize that he was finished until I started my 3rd loop. I left heading the wrong direction and was wandering as I aimed to enter the woods getting to #18. I stayed in the woods going to #19. I was slowing down the further that I went. On the leg to #21, I wanted to go to the left and come in from the road but the green looked thick there. I came in from the right, through the light green. There were a couple of things I would have liked changed about the map there. Some other people started to close in on me with the unfortunate route choice. I led them until one of them passed me going to #25. My visual inspection of the straight route led me to make the wrong decision to go around and through the parking lot. I reentered the dark conifer area a bit behind and then didn't go in far enough to see the spur. We both corrected quickly. The last few controls were steady, not like the furry of sprinting hard at the end. I was both tired and thinking it not worth pushing too hard and making my knee hurt more for tomorrow. As I lay in bed writing this, my knee is aching. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up tomorrow and on Sunday. I felt this was a pretty good race for me. Having a little moer speed (as in years past) would have been nice, but who couldn't say that?