orienteering 1:03:41 [3] 3.9 km (16:20 / km)
NAOC Middle Distance
What a fantastic course. I had a blast. I didn't go particularly fast but I didn't lose too much time anywhere either. A fast walk with an occasional jog here and there was it but I was in contact the whole time. It was tough to read the map because of the rain and a few times I wasn't sure whether the stacked contours were going to be up or down but I figured it would be pretty obvious when I got there and I was able to read things when it was important. I lost a few seconds on 8 when I was a little right but knew I had come across the wide flat depression on the right side so looked left and saw the flag. (The contours there are weirdly drawn - I thought it was my eyes but even now with a magnifier it doesn't make sense.) I lost a minute or so on 11 when I came down the hillside near the green and checked out the unmapped 5m rootstock to my right carefully before going over to the 1m one a bit to the left. I only just noticed that the clue sheet says 1.1m so I guess it's my own fault. But that's it. And it paid off as everyone else in F50 had several large errors. I certainly was not expecting a great result, but I won F50 by 7 seconds. Having lost by 8 seconds at the last NAOC and by 9 seconds in a US Champs several years ago I'll take it! :)