Orienteering race 2:00:19 [5] **** 8.3 km (14:30 / km) +455m 11:23 / km
spiked:11/20c slept:2.0 shoes: 200712 NB Absorb EX 11.5
The first day of the NEOC "Heart and Troll" A meet at Mt. Tom. Phil Bricker set a deviously vertical course with a 5.5% grade
Overall, I'm pleased with my results. The distance of the course is either 1.5 that of a typical Blue Middle or 0.66 of that of a typical Blue Long. However, because of the additional climb, I classify it as more of a long course - the winning time was about 70 minutes by Will Hawkins.
I haven't done that well, and my navigation was generally solid. I didn't move as fast as I would have liked - the course was a bit too physical for me. My choices were conservative, and I didn't move too quickly for my navigational prowess.
The course was interesting, with some interesting route choice options - and usually no trivially obvious routes. I ran an Orange and Brown course at Mt. Tom in November 2007 and got lost in the same area as today's course - e.g. controls 12 through 18.
I've included more details in my split comments, but I had three significant errors: 2, 15, and 19. From control 1 to 2, I misread the contours and entered the wrong reentrant. I searched for a few minutes before bailing out to the trail nearby and realizing my error. I then ran into Ross while approaching 2, but I ignored him and beat him to the control (I had a much safer route after my error). I later ran into Eddie Bergeron approaching 5 and also stuck to my safer route (though I picked up my speed) and beat him to the control.
I was particularly pleased with my long leg from 7 to 8. Even though there were adequate features to check off en route - some cliffs, a boulder, and eventually a trail intersection - I was accurate yet reasonably quick (under 10 min/km). Usually speed and caution are a compromise for me on longer legs. I did not lose contact from 14 to 15 until I entered a HUGE descending reentrant. I knew I was somewhere in the reentrant, but after I picked up significant speed moving downhill, I lost my exact point of contact. I was convinced I had passed the control, but it was about 100 meters further down the reentrant. I was a bit confused by the cliffs, and so I spent about eight to ten minutes longer than I should have scanning.
My route to 19 was fine, but my execution was poor. After some deliberation whether going above the hill or below it to the stream had merit, I decided to go below, but I got stuck plowing through dark green. I should have immediately punched down the hill to the stream and ran along it, but my compromise choice probably cost me about 5 minutes. I didn't get lost, though.
In the best case, on Saturday, the fastest I could have run this course was probably 90 minutes. I'm not thrilled about my errors, but the the good outweighed the bad.