Orienteering race (A-Meet Classic) 2:22:02 [3] *** 14.48 km (9:49 / km) +505m 8:21 / km
ahr:151 max:177 spiked:14/18c (injured) shoes: VJ Integrator
QOC US Individual Champs - Prince William Forest Park, Triangle, VA.
Blue Course (Day 2): 11.2km, 505m, 21c. (1:15000, 5m)
Course Setter: Keg Good
Mid 50s, sunny.
After seeing the results from Day 1, I was more encouraged about my performance. The goal for the day remains the same - accuracy over speed. The woods are much nicer today, so I benefited from the improved visibility and runnability. I was having a clean, solid race in my usual middle of the pack pace... until the darn trees got me thrice! I tried to keep going, but I was way too distracted to navigate well and wasn't having fun anymore, so I DNFed :( What a shame!
Here's what happened: everything was humming along just fine until #11. The area around the control is pretty flat, and I failed to make the necessary adjustments. In a bonehead moment ala Sprint Finals of '06, I ran right by the control without even checking the code. Convinced that I haven't gone far enough yet, I ran until the high grounds gave way to a big shallow reentrant. At this point I'd lost my place on the map and just couldn't relocate. After checking seemingly every reentrant I could find, I finally relocated off the gravel road some 500m ESE of the control! I certainly wasn't happy about my momentary stupidity, but it's one mistake. I just need to pull myself together and concentrate the rest of the way. So I backtracked to #11, where I had been 10+min ago. And just like yesterday, Maricel caught up to me. Having just come from the road, I picked up my pace a bit hoping to make up some time and also keep Maricel in my sight. That's when the first tree came into play. I was ducking to avoid some higher stuff thru the green when I put my right cheek right on a tree. It didn't feel bad initially - I thought it was just a normal scratch. But then as I got close to the road, I felt something dripping off my face. As I wiped it off, I was surprised to see my hand covered in blood red! Well, I checked the map, still a long way from finish, but my legs were fine so I decided to keep going. I ran the road instead of straight thru to give myself a little time to calm down. That didn't help much though. My concentration just wasn't there anymore. Too make matters worse, shortly after coming off the road W of #12, I got poked in the L-eye by a tree branch. Instantly my vision was blurred. This happened to me once at the Pig Sprint. That time my contact came out and was dangling on the eye lid. This time, I never felt the contact came out, so I thought I may have hurt my eye for real. As it was difficult to see, I slowed to a walk. In the process, I drifted S, thru the green, and stumbled upon #14, a water control. I stopped to rinse off the blood and clean a wound. Gabe came by to punch, so I asked him to inspect the seriousness of the injury. He said it doesn't look bad. I told him I couldn't see very well. He then took off to continue his course. I stood there for a few more seconds contemplating on what to do next. I decided that since I was so close, I'd attempt to complete the course. So I headed back towards #12 and #13, again to #14, and on my way to the last little loop. Somewhere along the way I got poked in the eye again! This time the R one!!! Luckily, the contact stayed in. Otherwise, I'd have to find my way back like a blind man. Well, I probably wasn't much better than a blind man though, because I never found #16. I circled around the area several times, relocated, reattacked. There seems to be a lot more root stocks than mapped, and I had no luck locating any of them on the map. As the time ticked past 2hrs, I knew I needed to head back, I could hardly focus, and I was not having fun out there anymore. So I decided to call it a day and headed back to the finish. It was a bummer what started as a solid run had to end so poorly. It was more disappointing to find that I wasn't mentally strong enough to hold it together when faced with obstacles.
Note
Overall, it was an okay weekend that ended on a disappointing note. I did what I planned to do navigationally. I just have to accept that right now, I'm still miles away from the best in the US as far as combining speed and navigation. On a side note, I really need to learn to NOT hurt myself so frequenty when orienteering. It's been a pretty terrible month on that front :( See
Oct.4,
Oct.13,
Oct.20, and Nov.4 for the assortment of injuries.
Things I'm satisfied with from the weekend:
Staying in contact with the map, and managing mistakes (except for late Sunday) when things did go wrong. Feeling in control, especially during the first half of Sunday's course, always a step ahead in the navigation - expecting to see features before arriving at them.
Things to improve on:
Learn to navigate just as well at race pace. Practice reading the map during faster paced runs. Pick better route choice, especially mico ones where I need to avoid running into trouble and injuring myself. One thing that may help with my peripheral vision is learning to take quicker glances at the map while still getting the same useful information I get now with the longer stares. Last but not least, is better concentration to MYSELF when running with others in the vicinity.