Orienteering race (Long) 2:07:35 [3] *** 7.3 km (17:29 / km) +215m 15:14 / km
US Long Distance Championships at Fishtrap Lake, WA. This terrain was quite rocky and had a lot of fairly high grass making it difficult to run safely. It was also high visibility and a nice, long course likely to favor running ability. After my nice results yesterday, I made a conscious decision early in the course today not to push it. I just moved at a pace that felt comfortable and safe and didn't expect to have stellar results. Technically, it was a pretty good day. I lost some time at number 5 because I wasn't clear on what the circle was around and didn't look at the description carefully enough. Wandered around looking between every set of rocks I could find. Once I noticed that one of the boulders of interest was only 1 m high, I found the correct spot quickly. According to my split analysis I also lost significant time at number 11. This seems to be poor route choice. I swung left to get pretty close to the lake. It was farther out of the way than necessary and probably slower running. I also was unsuccessful in executing my intended route to number 17. I planned to go to the North side of the marsh and above the little areas of green. The marshes were not nearly as easy to discern as it seemed and I got pulled further south by other's routes. Ended up going south around the marsh instead once I figured out what I had done. As expected, my results were quite a bit farther down the list today due to my slow pace.
