Orienteering (Foot) 1:55:02 [4] **** 12.5 km (9:12 / km) +460m 7:46 / km
spiked:21/24c slept:8.5
The Billygoat at Thatcher State Park, NY. With flaky driving directions from the thruway, our drive in the morning didn't go so well. We got to the park with 20 minutes to pickup our registration, put Max in daycare and get ready before the walk to the start. I enjoyed this race but felt drained through most of it. I was unable to respond well though I probably ran a better physical race than any this year. I constantly felt like I needed to conserve energy and struggled to keep up. The early climbs to the top of the course took it out of me. To make matters worse, I had a slight bobble to #2 and an inefficient route to #3. I bobbled #6, and #10 then took inefficient routes to #7 (the right fork I took was the worse of the two), and #23. The best thing was getting a tip from Kristin Hall and Dave Onkst to skip #12. We had run together a little bit earlier in the course but I had to catch-up to them going to #13. From there we stayed together right up until the end. Kristin navigated most often but Dave, Jeff Saeger and I had our contributions whenever she paused. It felt like I could never break away from anyone, nor was I alone much at all. In micro route choices, I often had the right direction but chickened out too soon to stay with the pack; this made me run extra distance. I finished the race without cramping which means that I either did it just right or didn't push enough. I was conserving energy from #7 to the end and as a result, I didn't have much desire to push hard at the very end. Marty Hawkes Teeter, who I'd just passed at the Go control, caught me running in. See the Split List.