Orienteering race 6:14:00 [4] *** 26.2 km (14:16 / km)
What a fun day! We started in cool, sunny weather beside a beautiful lake surrounded by low mountains covered in golden leaves. The first leg was a trail run where we ran up to a summit lookout, then came down a steep hill on a streamered route to join a main trail to the final trail run control. Sandy had kindly invited me to run with her, which seemed like a great idea, but like a total jerk, I got caught up in the excitement of the large group and ended up running most of the way up the mountain. For unknown reasons - certainly not due to adequate training recently - my legs felt great today. I ran most of the trail/road sections throughout the race and as much cross-country as I could handle, given the large expanses of leg-grabbing blueberry bushes.
The first orienteering section consisted mostly of long legs of 1-2 km on the Silvermine map. For #2, 3 and 4, I ran into people near the control, which helped me to find it. For #5 and 6, I was on my own. I can't think of the last time I had such a tough time choosing a route as I did going to #6. I literally stood still for 90 seconds, evaluating the different options and finding them all pretty poor. It sounds like I headed a similar direction to Peggy, coming out on the trail just west of the water stop. I crossed the trail without seeing it, but luckily heard some runners going by. I'd be interested in knowing what the fastest route was, because it certainly wasn't the one I took!
After the map exchange (with great food at the aid station), we crossed the road to the larger, more detailed Rockhouse Mountain map where we did #8-20, a mixture of shorter and longer legs. Things went well until after #11, when I made my big, horrible, dumb error of the day. With my huge map folded down to a manageable size, I made the classic rookie error of thinking that down was up, so I took off on a due east bearing for 5-6 minutes, when I should have been going due west. Naturally, I didn't need to refer to my map very often because I knew I was just aiming for a big trail. But finally I realized that the terrain was nothing like it should have been. Rats, that was 11-12 minutes wasted, some of it in a dark green marsh. Other than a few minutes lost looking for #14 at the wrong bend in the trail (along with a group of people making the same error), things went smoothly for the rest of the section, which included some of the more challenging technical nav. (Although experienced Highlanders told me that the nav was relatively simple this year, compared to other years.) From an initial look at the results, it appears that some of my better splits rankings were on the shorter technical legs, and as per usual, I got sloppy on longer legs.
After the final map exchange and yummy aid station break, we headed back across the Silvermine map with one fork. I stayed east to go through the green marsh, since that meant a slightly more direct route to #23. After #24, it was time to blast down the ski hill for one final control before the finish. Amazingly, my legs still felt energetic, although my brain was definitely turning to mush. According to Winsplits, I moved up 6 places on this final map, although I saw very few people.
As always, there was lots to be learned today. It was only the 2nd time I'd used a 1:15,000 map, and this one had loads of intricate detail. It was the first time that I'd raced in a field consisting exclusively of experienced orienteers with a range of ages, all doing the same long distance course from a mass start. In an adventure race or trail run, I'm accustomed to being much slower than average. To my surprise, I was faster than the people in my part of the pack. However, I'm accustomed to making up time through my nav in adventure races and adventure runs. Today it was the opposite. There were people who mostly walked who would arrive with me at several controls in a row, having taken different routes. I passed most of those familiar faces on the final map, since there weren't many controls, and there were long sections where I could run. But the bottom line is that my nav skills need work. It's not that I didn't know where I was or how to get to the next control (except for my south-is-north error), but I obviously could be making more efficient route choices - including better micro-routes. That's good news, actually, since I don't expect my running to get any faster as I get older, so it's good to know that my nav has so much room for improvement.
Great event, yummy post-race food, well-organized, and a very friendly, welcoming bunch of orienteers. Glad I made the trip. I finished within the time limit, which was my goal - 48th of 70 runners, 10th woman.