Blue Day 1, nominally 10.4/225. I ran (
and bonked) on Round Pond at my first West Point meet 7 years ago; I had vague memories of the terrain, but my orienteering comprehension has so dramatically improved that once bewildering sections seemed trivial.
West Point courteously reminded me that my physical conditioning is inadequate. I was very frustrated by numerous mistakes I made - technical errors which I could have avoided, though deciphering the terrain was tricky and could best have been solved by more intelligent routes. I didn't have enough stamina to be competitive today, but it seemed like everyone but the Zhyk and Wyatt was equally terrible.
I started somewhat aggressively, running like a middle distance. I made a stupid mistake coming into 4 when I ran low instead of high around a cliff costing perhaps 20-30s. I was slow marching up to 5 and slow but accurate converging on 6. I proceeded to make two stupid 1 minute mistakes on 7 and 8 - first veering left on my attack, then going up a hill because I didn't read the terrain well enough. I'm content with my route to 9, though it might have been smarter to bail to the trail earlier. I was starting to lag a bit en route to 10.
I caught up to the Teutsch at 11, then we both blew 3 minutes being unnecessarily confused and stopping early at 12. Furious with myself, I nailed most of my route to 14, then turned one reentrant too early, losing 45s. I attacked 15 poorly for a loss of 90s, then discarded 75s getting confused by green en route to 16. The rest of the course was not difficult, but I was very slow.
The climb was underestimated (by at least 2x), and some control locations were dubious, but the biggest limiting factor was my glacial pace and poor map reading. I finished in an undeserved fifth.