Orienteering race (International Event) 1:42:40 [4] ***** 6.3 km (16:18 / km) +675m 10:37 / km
spiked:9/22c shoes: Standard White O-Shoes
M21A, OO Cup Day 1, Slovenia. Intense! 22 minutes of mistakes. This was a relentlessly hilly course on the alpine plain of the Velika Planina - the map, Tiha Dolina, consisted of a very highly and technical northern part, with a somewhat flatter and faster open hillside to the south. Despite being 1:7500, it was tough to read in places, the sheer detail being overwhelming.
Getting to the start was part of the challenge - after negotiating a series of hairpin bends on alpine roads to the car park, it was a steep 250m climb onto the plateau, and then another 30 minutes walk to the start proper.
After a couple of easy legs, we were plunged straight into the tricky stuff and I immediately started making mistakes. My most spectacular was running NE instead of ENE for Leg 3-4, and ending up on a road well past No 5, let along No 4. I compounded the error by failing to realise this and running even further away, before finally managing to make my compass and map fit with the road direction. This was a six minute mistake and my biggest of the week.
Several other more minor mistakes and "unplanned route choice alterations" later and I was starting to tire in the heat. From 13 to 14, I misread the map and thought the leg was a down-and-up, so swung left to go around without losing height. But it was a down-and-down, so I ended up a long way from the control and much too high. My pace slowed somewhat and I was just glad to finish in the end.
This was by far my slowest pace of the week, but surprisingly it was my third best placing of the week. The winner ran in 68 minutes - very impressive, and still over 10 min/km, indicating the tough nature of the course. Truly an epic. My classification was 32nd place out of 75 finishers, and 5m 39s behind Alan E.
Mistake analysis:
To 3: Poor route choice (4m)
To 4: Poor navigation (6m)
To 5: Poor map-reading (1m)
To 10: Poor map-reading (1m)
To 11: Poor map-reading (1m)
To 13: Poor route choice (1m)
To 14: Poor map-reading (4m)
To 18: Poor route choice (1m 30)
To 19: Poor map-reading (30s)
To 20: Poor map-reading (1m 30)
To 21: Poor map-reading (30s)