Orienteering (Night) 1:08:20 [4] 5.1 km (13:24 / km) +155m 11:38 / km
slept:4.0
US Night Orienteering Championships, OCIN, Hueston Woods State Park, OH. This was one of those times when a do over would have been really nice. It was cool (~30 F) at the start, but I planned for that and was ready. There was about 2 inches or more of snow on the ground and i was more or less ready for that too. The first 3 controls seemed to come up really fast, especially since it was night orienteering in which distance travelled is usually perceived to be longer than it actually is. I had to check and re-check the map on the first 2 controls (I'd also forgotten to grab control descriptions at the start). For the 3rd control, my bearing was off so I hit a road passing well under the control, then had to go up the road and back. On the 4th control, I wanted to stay high so as to avoid a slippery steep climb at the end. However, I was too far to the right and had to come back to the left at the end. For #5, I chased a guy and then ran true as he missed to the right; I spiked it!
Control #6 was my downfall. I thought to use the roads and trails. First, I wanted to hit the roads well left of the straight route. I don't know what was happening but I kept drifting right. The result was that I went across some green going almost straight toward the control. When I hit a road, I wasn't sure which road it was but eventually left it, knowing where I was. If I'd have just stayed on the road, I would have been better off. However, I returned to my plan to hit a power line trail in a greenish slashy looking power line ride. I was okay at first but hit some dense vegetation and started adjusting a lot. Soon, without knowing it, I got turned around and even read my compass 180 degrees off. I never seemingly got to the power line ride. I stopped when I realized this and not knowing where I was, I bailed for the road again. Once on the road, not far from where I'd left it earlier, I headed toward the finish and Go control. I passed both going for the lake shore. I realized that I needed to head back up a little when I saw that some streams were high. Eventually, I got in the right reentrant, followed it up to the power line ride, then climbed the side of the reentrant slowly to the control. I think I lost 15:00 minutes,
After that debacle, I settled down. I ran straightest toward #7 but when. Hitting the reentrant valley, I paused a long while to figure out if I was left or right of the control; I had been left of it and analyzed it correctly, I went straight to #8 too but got caught in unmapped green right before it; I even fell and had trouble untangling myself to get up. For #9, I crossed the reentrant, ran up a kind of spur, and went along the top of a reentrant to spike it. Somewhere along here, it had started snowing harder. For #10, I wasn't sure what to do. Rather than take long to decide, I decided to just run straight up the reentrant. This took me back and forth across the creek a few times. I also used a trail further up. I spiked it. For #11, I ran a straightish angle to the road then with some hesitancy, I went around to the right side if the hotel. The rest was just run and run. I did however stay in the snow on the run in.
This was a disappointing race. Knowledge of the park would have helped a lot.