Orienteering long 2:51:59 [5] **** 13.2 km (13:02 / km) +395m 11:20 / km
shoes: Silva Pro Lite
Flying Pig - U.S. Ultralong at East Fork State Park, OH.
Perhaps it was best that my watch stopped at some point during my race (I really do need to get another watch that doesn't have the start/stop button on the watch face) because I think knowing that I had been out in the woods for nearly 3 hours would have affected my race. Regardless of the legnth of time I spent out in the woods, it was a tough race to get through physically and navigationally. I won't deny that I didn't love flying down the steep hills and then crawling up through mud as I crossed the numerous ravines on my course, but by the end of the race doing so had really taken its toll. Even the trails of ankle deep mud required more energy than I would have liked to have spent as I slogged along them. I took another noteworthy fall on my way to control #15 - as I was running down a spur the dirt just gave out underneath me and I took about a 10ft fall. A log broke my fall which left me with a nasty scrape up my forearm and bruises all up my right leg, but at least I was spared from falling into the stream/river right below it (Sam was not so lucky).
Navigationally I struggled with this map. I don't know how much of it was due to exhaustion, especially as my race dragged on. I'll be interested to see everyone's race on RouteGadget, because I'm not sure whether my overall slowness or poor navigation was the larger contributing factor to my significantly longer time. Legs that were particularly rough for me were 2-3 (the vagueness of the vegitation in the last 4th of that leg gave me a lot of trouble), 8-9 (literally ran right over top the control), and 14-15 (my fall really blew my concentration and enthusiasim).
Despite beating myself up pretty badly today I was still very glad that I ran the race (and even more glad when I finished). Overall, I am very happy with my orienteering at the Flying Pig. There is definet room for improvement, but a weekend like this is always good because it helps me to prioritize certain aspects of my training, but I ran well enough that I am not completely discouraged, yet...