Orienteering race (Foot) 16:47 [4] 2.2 km (7:38 / km) +51m 6:50 / km
13c slept:7.0 (injured)
Cranbury Park, near Milford, CT. WCOC A-Meet Sprint A. The footing was tricky with lots of small boulders spread around the often light green woods. I started poorly by getting confused at #1. was ready for the 1:4,000 scale but didn't read the notes or anticipate the 1.5m contour interval. I was looking for a reentrant indicated by 3m contours. I'm not sure why I was so slow going to #2 after that--probably just recovering confidence. I gathered speed but made a big boo boo at #6. I got to the wall, then climbed on it to see on both sides. Somehow I walked past the control with out seeing it or the well/pit. Dumfounded, I eventually circled back and read the map more carefully but it was a whole minute lost. Things clicked together a little better afterwards. I caught up to Kristaps Tamuzs(?) and ran a few controls with him before getting away as he made a bad route choice to the pond. I started getting tired and struggled to catch Gayle Ryan at one point. On the run-in, I had to push to stay ahead of Jeff Saeger--I had almost accidentally tripped him earlier as I turned in front of him expecting the control to be on my right after entering a field. Overall, my result was not bad compared to the field. I was second in M45+ behind Daniel Schaublin by 4 seconds; JJ Cote was behind me by only 14 seconds. My knee didn't bother me during this.
Orienteering (Foot) 15:27 [3] 2.2 mi (7:01 / mi) +51m 6:33 / mi
13c (injured)
Cranbury Park, near Milford, CT. WCOC A-Meet Sprint B. I started about 30 seconds behind Mike Eglinski and ran straight to the first set of trail intersections. Forgetting the 1.5m contour interval again, I thought not to climb so I cut right a bit. This confused me approaching #1 since I had to cut left along the marsh a long way before finding it. Going to #2, I should have looked at the map more. I thought going just left of the marsh would be better than going around on the right but hadn't noticed that a trail would have taken me right there. I got hung-up in the marsh a bit. I got on-track better after the first two controls and started passing people. I felt a bit more tired than the first sprint but the woods were a little more clear. On the leg to #8 I caught a crowd, that eventually keyed off of Mike Eglinski. I had originally thought to use the trails but with a train going, I went straight at it. I kept going too high and wasn't sure how high I was. As we all stopped at the reentrant, Mike went down and I went up--seeing nothing, I started down and saw Mike going up. I still didn't see anything so I ran back up again as Mike was going down with others. I finally realized it was much lower--splits seem to show a loss of about 1 minute though we weren't wandering that long. I eventually got ahead of the pack on a climb. I had a slight bobble at the Go control. I initially looked in the right direction but didn't see the control so I circled right. The long run in was a struggle. Once again, I did okay compared to others runners but in M45+, JJ Cote's consistency won out over Daniel and myself. My combined time got me 2nd over Daniel by only 7 seconds. My knee didn't bother me during this.
Running (Warm-Up) 8:00 [1] 0.5 mi (16:00 / mi)
(injured)
Cranbury Park, near Milford, CT. I ran around and underneath an unusual copse so I could still watch Max as Peggy was racing. The copse was a weeping beech hybrid/graft. The canopy formed a natural umbrella as leaves hit the ground on all sides and several trunks held it up. The trunks were twisted and even were even grown together so that branchs from one trunk grew into another. Course setter for the day, Joe Brautigaum, could still find his initials carved high up back in 1978.