Running (Street & Trail) 5:00 [3] 0.5 mi (10:00 / mi)
slept:5.0 weight:181lbs
French Creek Park, PA. Warmup from Campground Loop A back and forth to the start of DVOA's Fall Orienteering Festival. I forgot my eyeglasses and had Togo back to the car.
Orienteering (Foot) 1:18:15 [3] *** 7.5 km (10:26 / km) +225m 9:04 / km
spiked:11/15c
DVOA Fall Orienteering Festival at French Creek State Park. The event was on the North map. I ran the Red course as M45+. I had zero expectations going into the event; I just hadn't been thinking about it. I may be too complacent about it but it was just good for me to get a run in. Overall, my errors weren't big or bad. I was running too slowly and a lot of that I'm hoping was due to profound fatigue. I didn't feel all that tired starting out nor during the race but upon seeing my finish time not breaking 10 min/k, I was surprised. I think the total of 8 hours of sleep that I got over the past 3 nights had a lot to do with that. I also had some less than optimal route choices.
I did lose concentration twice during the race. The first was after I ran up the trail to #1, and punched it. I'd felt like I was just starting out when I headed into the woods for #2--after getting to #2, I thought the code was wrong despite the features matching. I had been looking for #101 which was the code for control #1.
Going to #3, I was lazy. Instead of going up toward the trail, I ran straight to save climb and distance. I navigated well but the forest was slower than using the trail.
I spiked #4 by trying to keep level &straight and attacking from the boulders.
I wanted to run through the valley toward #5 but I felt it'd be too green. I was worried about not having an attack point if I ran along the edge of the reentrant. I decided to compromise but I drifted down into the reentrant anyway as I was climbing it. I did a sort of S-pattern going out again and not seeing the control until I was on it due to some unmapped vegetation around it.
I ran straight at #6 and was pleased a third of the way there to come across a charcoal terrace that I hadn't seen earlier (all the map symbols were smaller than they should have been). The charcoal terrace was right on the straight path. Another third of the way there, I saw some mountain laurel which I interpreted as the mapped light green splotches that were also on the straight path. I saw the control soon after.
I debated going straight to #7 and started to do it but later reasoned that I could run the trail to the right better. The trail however, was slow with leaves hiding rocks. I left at a bend, crossing to another and turning left. I didn't see the ditch that I was looking for, to lead me in but saw some weird contours in about the right place. Going down, I soon saw the ditch, saw the stream reentrant, and spiked the control. The trail route however, was a bit on the slow side.
I took off trying to run the flat going straight to #8, and to leave a guy who'd started out of #7 about when I had. A guy was ahead of me too but I couldn't see him ahead. I spiked the control.
For #9, I ran around to the left past some vegetation that was on the straight route.
For #10, I ruled out going low for the trail route because of the green terrain I'd have to cross to get to a trail. I climbed to a higher trail, then cut across to another. I was only on that for a short while before I headed on bearing again. I tracked my progress fairly well until near the end. I got more left than I thought was correct as this took me to a control. It didn't look exactly correct but I went to it anyway because of the location of it relative to a stream. When I found out it wasn't mine, I stopped to tie my left shoe. I was a bit worried because I couldn't see another stream. When I finished with my shoe and looked up, I saw the correct control not far away, across a sort of deep and narrow reentrant.
For #11, I just kept plugging away at a steady pace to get to the top of the hill. From there it was easy to attack off of the ridge.
For #12, I started out well, going on bearing, and staying off of the ridge to my left. Before I'd gotten to #11, I'd seen Jeff Seeger seemingly closing in. I didn't know what course he was on but I thought he might be running Red. As I headed to #12 and looked to my left, I could see Jeff moving off fast. At the same time, I checked my compass bearing and it was wrong--I incorrectly concluded that I was following a wrong bearing and I turned left to follow a correct bearing that also happened to be somewhat in the direction that Jeff had run. At some low vegetation areas I couldn't tell for sure if it was the clearings marked on the map. I couldn't see any rootstocks which were mapped into the clearings so I went on. Very soon, I hit a trail. After 40 seconds or so, I relocated at a trail bend. Correcting, I went past the clearings, and then paused again because I hadn't seen the control. I soon saw the control but I'd lost about 3 minutes--worst of the day.
Going to #13, I ran straight initially. I should have cut left and used the trail that I'd relocated on earlier. I was getting confused because I was going uphill when I thought I should be going downhill--this was due to the way I'd folded my map. I hit another trail, went left to an intersection, then turned right until I saw a charcoal platform on my left. I then went on bearing but not seeing the control until I was right about on it. I was slow to read the control description (rootstock); it would have made me a few seconds quicker by letting me know that I should have run toward the green.
For #14, I was getting tired and running through the rocks made me feel it more. I knew not to go to the control to the right on the depression and soon found the boulders. I was expecting 3 but it seemed that there was only one of mappable size for this map.
For #15, I took off on a poor bearing but corrected before getting to the road. I adjusted my route to use the more open gaps that connected the different campground loops and got to the control pretty well.
Being out of shape, I didn't think running in hard would benefit me the next day so I ran an almost regular pace. I was surprised when I looked at my watch, realizing that I didn't break 10 minutes per K. Oh well.