Orienteering race (Foot) 1:23:00 [4] *** 9.2 km (9:01 / km) +90m 8:36 / km
spiked:19/24c slept:8.0 weight:191.5lbs
QOC: Manassas National Park. Vido Alexsiev set a nice course through this generally fun park. I ran okay but tired initially. A few times I missed and passed controls only by a little bit. The controls were set low which is fine but I think some features were a little bit off.
S-1 - I went straight to the rough open, crossing 2 fences that might have been better to go around. 2 kids had just punched.
1-2 - I closed-in on David Onkst as both of us hit the control well.
2-3 - David and I started to hit the road but jumped back in when we realized it was not an allowed route. Coming back I got a little low. When I hit the stream, I had to come back up a little bit.
3-4 - After rounding the pond, I got in the fields and followed the stream to the confluence, then in.
4-5 - I hesitated midway because I wasn't thinking I needed to cross the first ridge. I didn't see the control until I was right on it.
5-6 - I had to convince myself that I wasn't going too far, but I hit it okay.
6-7 - Similar to #5, I had to convince myself that I wasn't going too far. I hit it just to the left. I think coming up short is a sign of my weak running.
7-8 - I cut across the scattered trees which are filling-in each year more and more. After crossing the line of trees and ditches, I was pushed left. I still recognized the V-shaped light green corner. Once back in the forest, I was just south of the control.
8-9 - I spiked it and Peggy was just leaving going the other way.
9-10 - I got too far left near the deadfall. I kind of was running there when in retrospect I shouldn't have.
10-11 - I spiked it and a few others including Kim Jepsen and Tom Nolan were leaving it going the other way.
11-12 - Admittedly, my technique wasn't so smooth. I tried to run along the edge of the deadfall, then turn left. I wasn't making sense of the cairns much until I got just past the last one, I turned around following them back, and still almost didn't see it behind the fallen log.
12-13 - I climbed to the ridge to get around the deadfall, but I went a little too far. I went right past the open area with the building, then to the next rough open and in.
13-14 - I retraced my steps and was looking for a cairn like those near #12. I stopped at a rootstock and knew a control was behind it, only I didn't think it was mine. Not seeing anything else, I went to it after 2 guys that 'd seen earlier punched it (they were headed to #14 when I was going to #13). I never saw the mapped physical cairn but looking at the map more closely after punching I realized it was a root stock feature after all. The 2 guys claimed that I really owed them for finding it.
14-15 - I zipped off well, staying in what was mapped open, even if it wasn't all open. It was not bad to run through. I ran straight all the way and spiked it.
15-16 - I thought about taking the trail but gave it a go straight anyway. I got through the scattered rough open area well, despite it closing in like the area near #8. I ran to the corner of the mapped deadfall. I've made errors here before so I think the corner isn't mapped in alignment with the root stock. I ran all the way to the far edge of the field at a dot knoll, then ran back.
16-17 - I ran straight and spiked it.
17-18 - I risked going straight and should have known better. I ruled out going left but didn't think enough about going right. In the deadfall, I found a huge mappable rootstock, and a 6'x6'x5' shed of some sort made of cinder blocks. These were just about on the line to #18, but I had to zig-zag and climb a lot of stuff to get to #18.
18-19 - I ran straight and remembered trouble once before in the area. The trouble wasn't with the reentrant, it was with the depression west of the control before downslope tags were added. I got to the reentrant just fine. I ran above it rather than in it because I was pretty sure I was seeing all of it. I went around an area of denser vegetation, then into the reentrant as I got really near the road. I turned back and had to run 60m through the reentrant to get to the control.
19-20 - Around to the right side of the deadfall, around the north side of the pond, then in.
20-21 - Out to the field on the right side, then back in before the pond. I started having trouble matching-up the edge of the vegetation so I thought it safer that way. In the small woods, it wasn't quite white terrain but I could run around things until I got to the fence.
21-22 - Out across the fields taking a southern angle a little, got me through the low part and into the next field. I turned south there like the leg I ran from #3 to #4, and crossed the creek to the trail. I got a bit confused matching-up the trail so I returned to the creek early running west up it to the control. I hesitated once, being too early.
22-23 - I ran straight and at the thicker vegetation I cut right. I knew this would put me left of the control when I hit the stream. Sure enough, when I hit it near a confluence, I looked left and saw the control.
23-24 - I ran straight, crossing the stream, then getting on the trail. I had a moment of hesitation thinking I was on the trail further NE and that didn't match-up. I kept to the trail that I hit first. I cut off a few corners. Getting across the field, I wasn't reading the vegetation well. That made it harder to fit the contours but I got into the right reentrant and spiked it, just before a father-son team got there. I kind of thought they were the guys I'd seen at #14 but they probably weren't.
24-F - I got across the stream fast, and when I was approaching the fence, I could hear the younger guy of the team I'd passed at #24 approaching just to my side. I hurried through and picked-up the pace. Somehow I was able to outsprint the teenager - yahoo!