Running warm up/down (Trail) 3:00 [2] 0.35 km (8:34 / km)
slept:7.5
DVOA’s 50th Anniversary National Event, at Mt Penn. I jogged down the trail from the start with Ted Good, Max, and Peggy. It was cold and breezy up on top so it felt good to run, even if it was foggy and damp.
Orienteering race (Foot) 1:03:23 [4] 4.31 mi (14:42 / mi) +208m 12:47 / mi
DVOA’s 50th Anniversary National Event, Mt. Penn, PA. I was hoping for a slightly better day. Overall, I didn't feel that I had done badly. There was definitely room for improvement, both physically and with my navigation. Mainly, I didn't pickup on the better route choices. It was foggy and windy at the top of the mountain where we started.
S-1 - I didn't run hard down the trail, and kept going where it ran out on the map. There was easily enough there to still follow it. After crossing the road, I went forward in the same direction, saw the ditch, and ran back up to the control. Aside from the relocation at the ditch and hesitation at an early trail intersection, I didn't think I had lost a minute to everyone, as AP shows.
1-2 - I got on the wrong trail initially, then cutover to the one that angled downward. At the next intersection, I turned right, and ran to the next intersection again. From there I attacked and spiked it.
2-3 - I walked up initially, then as it leveled out, I ran to spike it.
3-4 - I suppose my glasses had fogged while climbing to #3. I didn't see the high trail route. Though it was 4 contours up, it might have been better for me. I cut across, climbing a little and dropping. I thought I was above #1 when I hit a trail and decided to go down to bend near #1. However, I was already near #1 when I went further down. I made my way back up when I saw the road and tried to avoid the out of bounds area as I climbed. I wandered over to the triangle intersection a little confused with the road symbol for what I thought was more of a vehicle track. I spiked it from the intersection but lost a few minutes on this leg.
4-5 - I went straight and turned right when hitting the trail. I took the ziz-zaggy trail upward and saw the control from the end of the trail at an intersection.
5-6 - I thought about going far left on the road but ran to the intersection, along the power lines, into the field, and across to a trail that got me to the top of the mountain. I had to pause a little along the way to read. My glasses were foggy enough that I had read the power lines to be a trail. From the trail bend at the top, I got to the reentrant north of the control. I ran along the side of that until hitting it.
6-7 - I was catching another older runner on this leg and then a Blue runner came by from above attacking the same control. The Blue runner hit it first, then the guy I was chasing.
7-8 - I ran on bearing and passed the runner I'd seen on the previous leg. I went on the left side of the vegetation and in. The Blue runner had led the way.
8-9 - I thought about the way around to the right but felt I wasn't navigating that well, nor running well through the rocky terrain. I climbed slowly at first. Getting over the top, I drifted right a little. Crossing the power lines, I'd unknowingly picked up on my pants a whole lot of the very scratchy seeds on top of my right thigh. Later this leg would hurt a little and was a bloody mess when I finished. I'd picked up similar seeds in the Stumble a few weeks ago and was just getting rid of the scabs. From the road, I cut left and then right to go out along the spur. The end of the spur was rocky as mapped, but I hadn't expected that to slow me down as much as it did. I descended and saw Istvan with some other runners coming back at me. I thought they had been coming from #9 but they were leaving #10 and had passed #9. I got drawn off by them to the right, where I punched an incorrect control I recovered and went on to hit #9 well--it was just lower than I'd thought it'd be.
9-10 - Straight at it, I didn't go all out but hit it perfectly.
10-11 - I thought to go around the rocky spur and hill but mainly went straight. This took me up and down a few times. I crossed the road near a spur with a control and went on to spike it. I never saw the downhill trail route to the left.
11-12 - Straight up and around to the right of the unmapped bit of deadfall.
12-13 - I ran straight. A West Point runner coming from my left changed directions as our paths crossed and we both ran toward the knoll on the other side of the road. I punched the control there, then realized it was past the knoll.
13-14 - I aimed off to the left. I don't think I saw the trail paralleling the streams. I got hung-up in the green and rocks along the stream. Fortunately I pulled to the right for faster running. On the run, I hadn't seen that there were 2 streams but pulling onto the spur between the streams, I saw it--sloppy.
14-15 - I took trails but ran with caution. I wasn't seeing things well with foggy glasses. I expected the control to be more above the trail.
15-16 - I let loose to finish. It felt good being able to run downhill without worrying about tripping on rocks or sticks. It felt good running overall!
I finshed 6th in the age group with a few runners not far ahead but Peter Hartman and Greg Balter 8 and 10 minutes ahead. I didn't expect to win or anything like that but could tell I'd lost some physical conditioning by not working out much in October (work and other family things were especially busy that month). Overall, I had a fairly solid weekend for navigation (considering the fog on Sunday).