orienteering race 2:30:35 [3]
DVOA local event at Pakim Pond, aka 4 Mile Circle. I like running in the Pine Barrens and I was doing great up until I went totally brain dead at #9.
I had a 20 minute error on a totally trivial control. I kept trying to make sense of some trails instead of just following the edge of the lake. The trail on the map was no longer in the terrain and the one in the terrain was not on the map. But the control was 10 feet from the edge of the lake so I should not have had such a large brain fart!!!!! The only thing I can say is that I had been pushing hard since I can actually run in Pakim Pond as there are no rocks anywhere and I must have been way more tired than I realized. At #8 I was only a respectable amount of time behind Tom and Petr and Len and then it all fell apart.
After the error, I had nothing left and on my way to #11 I realized that I was seriously bonking. I had already eaten the Shot Blocks I had with me and there were no more water controls either. But I was having trouble following my compass and my legs were toast. But I pushed on and kept making errors but managed to finish. I was clean to #12 but on all the other controls I wandered around for a bit. It was a mental battle to finish.
I enjoyed parts of this course very much. I think I took good routes for the most part taking round about routes on trails instead of straight in many instances. I wasn't totally clean in the first 8 controls, but only had minor bobbles. Perhaps straight would have been better and tired me out less since I wouldn't have pushed as hard to run. Who knows.