Orienteering (Sprint) 20:06 [4] *** 2.3 km (8:44 / km) +60m 7:44 / km
spiked:6/10c
Letchworth State Park West Side (southern portion). ROC: Sprint A. I had trouble with this sprint. Perhaps I was trying to run faster than I should, though these days, I don't seem to be running all that fast at all. There were some slight problems with the trails not being very precise for a sprint. The map was probably made for normally running at a 1:10,000 scale but it was blown up to 1:5,000. I started out okay going left on the trail to #1, and cutting off at a good but indistinct place to spike it. Going to #2, I went through a trail intersection that I didn't recognize and went way past the control, just beyond #9. That lost me around 1:30 minutes. I spiked #3, then slowed a bit before continuing to #4. #5 seemed further away than I expected but I hit it. Going to #6, I rounded the first marsh on the left side, then went on to see a break in the second marsh--only one break was shown on the map so I thought I was on course but really I was over to the left, crossing the marsh on a small wooden walkway. Going to #7, I went to the wrong hilltop and had to move over to the right after fumbling around. Even now, I'm not sure about the mapping of the contours there but a fenced manmade object should have helped me figure it out quicker if only I had seen it sooner. I hit #8 well and since I had already been to #9, I got that easily. Going to #10, I was going to descend the grass in the first field, and then cut right. However, getting closer, I could see through the first tree line and cut over to shorten distance. I think I started counting tree lines instead of fields because I crossed the seccond tree line and stopped at the power lines before the trail. I finally found it then headed off to the finish only to have gotten the map disoriented. I ran through the super line-o to the start and couldn't find the finish punch amongst all the controls. I asked around (poor form), and then went to the other end of the building where the finish punch was. Not such a good race for me but I guess I got some mental practic and some exercise.