Forest Orienteering race 36:18 [4] **** 6.28 km (5:47 / km) +288m 4:42 / km
NOL 9/NSW Middle distance champs - mp (36:18, +3:25 on Simon)
Good start to 9, only +7 on Simon here. Then big stumble on probably hardest control on course - knew it would be hard but didn't have the discipline to be >90% contact coming into control. Big time loss and then rushed when I saw a flag and MP. Ok from here to 17 but had lost a bit of zip and then another big time loss at 18 (+1:30) when I entered the circle underneath control and then tried to make largish rocks that were mapped as rocky ground fit with big rocks on the map. Lost quite a bit of zip from here, couldn't shake the thought that 18 was in the wrong place (which it wasn't) for the rest of the course. Physically didn't kill myself on the final climbs as knew I was out of it and needed to conserve for tomorrow.
Had a bit of a think why I have had a few mp recently and that I never seem to mp in a local/state race. My take on it is that when I make a mistake as soon as I see a flag I am rushing to not make further mistakes and sometimes don't check codes. Potentially the reason I don't mp in small races is that when I make a mistake there isn't another flag close by to run to. But given all the important races are big races definitely something I need to work into my process - need to plan for the negative scenarios instead of just positive scenarios.