orienteer race 1:43:06 [4] *** 5.5 km (18:45 / km)
11c
Day One at West Point. Plan was to go slow, read the map, minimize the mistakes, try to be <1.5X green course winner.
Slow: yes
read the map: usually
minimize mistakes: one huge one
winner's time: unknown
I started out OK, reminding myself to take it one control at a time. Fine until #3, a 4m boulder. First boulder I looked at was not it. Instead of stopping to figure it out, I wandered around to every large boulder in the area, completely ignoring all other signs (such as contours and a big lake). I estimated that I wandered for 5 minutes. When I looked at splits, I wandered for nine minutes. Nine minutes!!! Ugh!!! Must get this wandering under control....
When I finally located #3, I was punching at the same time as Acampbell (although I did not know it was her at the time). We were together the rest of the course. It was very interesting; we were often walking side by side, or two feet apart. But we both evidently navigating on our own. We would occassionally split up, but never for long. I thought she had dusted me on the trail run from 6 to 7. But as I approached, I could see that she had left the trail early, and was pushing through the woods. I stayed on the trail longer, and caught up to her. She finally ditched me on the trail run into the last control. It was very motivating to be with someone the whole course; kept me sharp, and forced me to move a bit faster. Thanks Alison!