Orienteering (Night) 1:34:02 [4] 6.9 km (13:38 / km) +195m 11:56 / km
spiked:11/14c slept:7.0 weight:180.5lbs
QOC: Morven. Night-O. Running on a new map, I was looking forward to a rare night-o event. We got to the meet site at around 8:30 but it took a while to get registered and get everyone's lighting ready. I left in a hurry with an hour to go before the courses closed. In doing so, I left my glasses. That didn't seem to bother me too much at first.
Out of the start, I had a little trouble making sense of the trail and not seeing the reentrant nor the ditches leading to #1. It felt steep right away and that wasn't making me feel good. I decided to give going straight a try rather than climbing the trail up the hill and around to #2. I read my way across okay but didn't see much to confirm where I was except for the larger reentrants. I knew I was a bit high and south of #2 but corrected to hit the ditches that led me in. It seemed to take a long while getting to #3. I was going to follow the reentrant up but it was green there. I took a straighter route across trails and came-in just south of #3 before hitting it. I stayed somewhat high going to #4, but still on the hillside. I started catching others who started earlier. A reentrant prior to #4 was much more pronounced than it appeared on the map and several young guys were looking around as a team in it. I went on confident and spiked #4.
The confidence didn't do me well going to #5. I ran at an angle up the big spur, then angled down in the other direction when I got past the trail. I hit the mapped green and went due south to get around it. It seemed like there was a distinct edge to follow easterly at first, and that matched the map. At some unmapped rootstocks, the edge no longer made sense. I went on and noticed the ground flattening. I hit some things I thought might have been the mapped trails but none of it lined-up. When I started seeing some reentrants, I got to thinking that I had passed the control. In reality, based on my GPS track, I had pulled-up about 90m short. I looped back up the slope to where the steepness of the slope had changed. I think the younger guys I'd seen when approaching #4 were coming down. On my second try going down, I kept the green vegetation farther on my left but again got to the reentrants. I went further that time past the reentrant and found some kind of trail that I thought made sense. When I noticed some green bushes before an intersection and some small bits of green on the map, I thought I'd relocated myself and my track confirms it. However, my attack from there was too high. My GPS track shows I passed the control only 30m away. The trails there weren't making sense to me. I started following them and went through some intersections until I ended up seeing a control. This wasn't the one I needed but it was near a wider dirt road. Unfortunately, the unfinished map didn't distinguish one type of trail from another. I did see a paved road a short way away but still couldn't be sure of where I was. Tom Wells was hunting in the area too. We both stood there staring at our maps and not knowing that we were looking for the same control. I ran down the road about 400m, not seeing an intersection and still unsure of where I had gotten to; I'd pulled up and did a u-turn just short of an intersection that might have helped me relocate again. I saw Tom again, then went off on other trails. Eventually I figured I'd gotten on a trail that was taking me due north. I didn't see a key intersection off of that that should have taken me west, right to #5. When I'd gone far enough (almost off the map), I u-turned and eventually went across the woods to the west. I hit a trail, right at a dead end that I recognized to be due north of the control. I followed trails around to get me close, then attacked and finally got there. That was about a 26:30 minute error in which I ran an extra 2.6K.
I ran straightish toward #6 and hit green before the trail. Running northwest on the trail, I tried to make things shorter but turned back. Eventually, I attacked #6 in the field, from almost due north. I realized at this point that I was going to be coming-in past the course closure time if I finished it out. I wasn't very close to the finish so I decided to finish a loop and head in from #11. I ran straightish on mostly grass rather than roads to spike #7. #8 was easy too; just straight over the grassy hill. I ran around the forest edge to #9, spiking it and being surprised at how quickly it came up. Going to #10 is where my glasses would have helped. I couldn't tell whether or not the trail on the edge of the mapped terrain went all the way through the thick forest. To play it safe, I went around to the right. Looking for a forest break, I pulled into the forest a little early in a small patch of white, that I had to back out of. Following the edge of the field around was easy.
Going to #11, I went very straight at first. I got through the tree lines and ditches easily and passed 2 younger guys running together. At the last tree line (I hadn't used the road), I paused. A big lighted mansion was very visible ahead to the right. The angle of it wasn't making sense with a large building that I could see on the map that was almost due north of #11. I cut left to line-up better with the mansion and the control. I saw the pond on my left and was confused again. The two guys I'd passed earlier were moving up the hill and got to a control on a tree up there just before me. I guess I didn't check the code since I was worried about being late. I punched but it was the wrong control and I didn't know it. I had mistaken the very large mansion I'd seen for another large building that was further NW and more prominent on the map.
Crossing fields and scattered trees didn't make a lot of sense going toward the start (because I wasn't leaving from #11) but I found my way there without trouble. A lot of people were there. I checked to see if I could finish the course and got a nod. I must have been pretty tired and not thinking straight. I saw parallel black lines on the map that were in between me and a trailhead I had wanted to use. Since I'd seen this on some maps before, I interpreted these as out-of-bounds; in reality, they were long parallel buildings that I couldn't see in the dark. To get around what I thought was out of bounds, I headed into some green woods and was going to cut west to the trail. I never got there. The green wasn't bad at first until I hit a stream. After that it was horrible. I got turned and headed down the stream, running right through it. I climbed out eventually but hit a barbed wire fence. I kept going to where I could and eventually came out at the road, very near the finish :(. I ran the edge of the forest to the field, then up to the control. Even there, the contours weren't making a lot of sense and that was because I missed a small cut-through and approached it from and unexpected angle. I got to the control just before someone else who'd taken the trail. That was about a 6:15 minute error.
I ran hard to finish-up and stay ahead of whoever it was behind me. I kept thinking the guy was right behind me but I was hearing the noise of my battery bouncing around in a waist pouch as I was running faster. I hit #13 okay with a slight bearing correction. I ran straight toward #14, cutting through the lines of trees when going around could have been equally as fast. I punched, and rounded the barn. It was then that I saw the other runner was well behind, still approaching the barn. I couldn't read the detail at the finish but knew it was on the other side of the road.
I guess today was a good kick in the pants. I ran 6.85 miles on a 6.9K course. Night-O forces one to plan better and I'll need to do that next week. I'll also need to remember my glasses and not get into a rushed navigation state-of-mind.