Canadian Orienteering Champs - Sprint
National Research Council campus, Ottawa
Phew, much improved from yesterday. In fact, this may have been the best sprint O race I've ever run in spite of a 1-minute error (according to the splits) when I ran past #6 to the wrong building entrance. The other 14 controls were tucked exactly where I expected them to be, I often read ahead to the next control as I ran, I was concentrating well, and I felt like I was running fast, which is an all-too-rare sensation! I won 3 splits, which almost never happens, but AdventureGirl! crushed me by 2 seconds in the finish chute, which is par for the course. She also got Igor (elite male silver medalist) by a second. :-)
The error was big enough by sprint standards to knock me down to the bronze medal, 6 seconds behind 2nd and 80 seconds ahead of 4th. Very happy with that. Also very happy that I felt totally knackered for the rest of the day. It's rare that I leave it all out on the race course.
Confession: I came to the COCs kinda hoping to medal in the Sprint because I thought it would be deliciously ironic to have tapered for a 15-minute sprint by doing a 3-day adventure race. Apparently, that's the secret! As Hammer says, I need to focus on races that are less than 18 minutes or more than 18 hours long. It's only the races in between that I have trouble with. ;-)
Note that AdventureGirl!'s medal is gold.