orienteering race 1:25:38 [4] *** 6.0 km (14:16 / km)
11c
Canadian Orienteering Championships. Long Course. What a screw-up. I had intended to run M45+ on Course 7B, but for some insane reason I grabbed the map and descriptions for Course 10, M- elite.
Not only that, but I failed to realize that I had the wrong map until about 5 controls into the course, including the 2.2 km mega-leg from 2 to 3.
At control 5, Sherpes came sliding down the hill into the control right behind me. It was a water control, and he jokingly hollered "beer near" as he slid in. I laughed and responded "ON ON" as I took off on the next leg.
And, as I did do, the brain finally started to work "Hey, isn't Sherpes running M Elite?" "We have the same control - interesting" "And I'm running ... uh ... oh explitive I've been running on a course 10 map!!!"
Well, I soon decided that I really did not want to run nearly 12 km in the rain, and make the whole rest of my group wait for me, so I picked up the next two controls, cut off a big loop to the northeast and picked up a couple more, then finished from the spectator control instead of doing a final loop to the east.
Oh well, worse things have happened. I hope Zach B is recovered from the big nail he got in his foot!
As it turned out, Andrea and Brennan were both out longer than I was, so I could have done the whole course without anybody waiting on me, but it sure felt good to get out of the rain and grab a hot shower at the community center to wash off the swamp muck and sweat!