orienteering (A-Meet) 1:51:23 [3] *** 7.9 km (14:06 / km) +275m 12:01 / km
spiked:11/17c
An even more demoralizing run today, including a mispunch for a DQ. What makes this performance even more diaappointing is that I can't explain what went wrong or figure out how to fix it. I thought I had an intelligent plan to #2, counting on hitting the wall corner ESE of the flag, but then I couldn't navigate the last 75 m successful. Plus I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. And when I tried to return to the stone wall, I still didn't know where I was, so I had to go all the way back to the stone wall S of the control. Next I veered totally off course on the long leg to wind up hitting the uncrossable fence NE of #17. So much for the idea of bombing S on my compass line before navigating carefully from the trail bend N of the control. At least I know what went wrong at the mispunch, where I foolishly eschewed either simple trail run to #13 to navigate through the green along the marsh/stream N of the control. I then came over a series of little spurs and I found a cliff with a flag on the SE side as expected. And to top it off, there was Katia, who had started in front of me on the same course. I was distracted enough to say hi rather than check the control code. On the way in, I lost another 8 minutes on #14 when I did just what I wanted after noting the boulder just N of the trail but still didn't find the flag. I came to the logical conclusion that I had not climbed enough, but didn't find the flag in the next higher reentrant. I went further still and recognized that I was in the marshy area NNW of the control. Even then it took some time to actually find the flag. I sure I walked right past it 3-4 minutes earlier, but was just not secure enough in my location to check the area carefully. I finished my lost weekend with poor route choices to #16 and #17, where simple trail runs would have been most effective. All in all, this was hardly the weekend I had planned, and pretty much killed any plans I had of performing well in the USOF Red standings for 2010. Just last weekend I was thinking that I could still complete on Red. Now I'm not so sure.