Orienteering race (Long ) 3:06:49 [4] ***** 8.6 km (21:43 / km) +90m 20:39 / km
spiked:11/17c shoes: Adidas ADZ16
COC Long at Carp Ridge Barrens. Started out well, around first swamp and hit the lake near the bottom. Up far shore to control. May be 0:10 error on poor bearing. Bearing and use rocks as a guide to hit 2 fine. Easy bearing to 3. Long leg to 4. Took a northwest bearing until I hit the rocky barrens and then shifted to more northerly bearing to skirt the swamps, then northeast to pass above one lake and hit the big lake. Hugged the east shore to the control. The distance seemed further than thought but islands in the lake made location easy to see. Split was reasonable but should have been going faster. Crazy leg to 5. Small isthmuses on the map seemed to indicate a good route choice. The crossable river on the map was chest deep and skirting the next swamp tricky. On the barrens again, the map did not seem to match the terrain. After considerable head scratching, it was decided to follow follow the compass and the far side was reached. Still did not look right but took a bearing to the area and lo and behold the control was there. Indecision error - 20:00. Same type of terrain to 6. Narrow dark green crossable section on the map were a maze of swamps and beaver dams at best. Reached other side to find racers going every which way. Got distracted for a bit but bailed to the swamp edge and soon found the control. Map confusion error - 25:00. easy run north on the rocks to 7 and out to the road and along for 8. Decided on a crazy route choice to 9, through the white, around the swamp and through white to 9. My mind must have been gone as I got confused on dark green juniper hilltop far off target. Finally bailed back to the road, had a bar to eat and did a easy road access to 9. Lost my mind error - 40:00. Easy bearing to 10, south to pond ad crossing to 11 on bearing. V route around dark green to 12. South west around swamp to trail to 13. Southwest bearing to 14. Back to the trail, following it to a jump off to 15. Bearing to 16 but missed on the first pass and had to go at it again. Error - 5:00. Bearing 17 and the finish, Slight correction on way in as other control startled me. Delay - 0:30. Lots left to finish strong.
Finished last 21th though there were 6 non finishers or DQ's. Total errors - 1:40:00 Could have finished in the top 10 with better and quicker decisions. Should carry & eat food if I may going to make this many errors in the future.