Orienteering race 1:28:28 [5] *** 6.1 km (14:30 / km)
NAOC Long Distance at Rocky Ridge. Another gorgeous autumn day - great to be out in the woods. As predicted, I did go "boom" on this course, but not as badly as in some Long distance events I've done. As an adventure racer, I used to think that my best event should be the Long course, but my results have consistently proven otherwise. I'm not sure whether I'm unable to maintain a good level of concentration for long enough - or maybe my slower running speed comes into play more when there is more trail running . Although I'd like to be good at Long Distance, inexplicably I've turned out to be best at Middle Distance. For someone who tries to train for 48+ hour adventure races, this makes no sense.
I pushed a lot harder today than yesterday, and it was difficult going in places - scrambling up beside cliffs, crossing swamps, hauling myself over deadfall and making my way across rocky areas without re-spraining my ankle. It was an interesting and challenging course, with one long leg across the map where apparently we all made different route choices. Things went reasonably well (except for a minute of wandering near one control) until just before #8. I'd been leading the race by more than 2 minutes at #7, then I made an 8+ minute error in the trail network near the end. Grrr - I was so sure that I had a bombproof plan, but I found myself wandering forlornly from intersection to intersection until I finally found a distinctive set of intersections that allowed me to relocate. I felt like a total rookie. It shouldn't have been that difficult to figure out, but my brain just didn't seem capable of settling down and solving the problem, thanks to adrenaline, fatigue, anxiety or stupidity - not sure which. ;-)
In spite of that dumb error, I'm reasonably happy with the race. I finished 4 minutes behind the winner, which was enough to knock me to 4th place in this competitive field. I won a few splits, which rarely happens - including the split to #1, which NEVER happens. Usually I make more errors - or worse errors - in the Long, so today represented some progress.
As suspected, my past-the-peak physical fitness wasn't a big factor this weekend. Even if I'd gone into it with more training, it's very clear that my nav skills need more work than my speed. No sense outrunning my ability to interpret a map.