Orienteering 1:21:04 [4] *** 8.07 km (10:03 / km) +110m 9:24 / km
spiked:17/20c shoes: 200908 Inov8 X-Talon 212
Day 2 of the UNO Boulderdash A-meet, a classic race. The course was much more technical, with a shorter average distance between controls. There were fewer linear features, though linear options existed on many controls. I fared less well comparatively because of an eight minute error on control 12.
Brendan in particular had a strong race - I was just over 33% back of his time, and in terrain this technical (in which he has consistently performed well), I can't realistically compete with him at my present ability. Emily showed her strength and superior skill on technical terrain by obliterating me by 14 minutes. I surmised that I would be less likely to be competitive with her on technical terrain. She started two minutes after me and caught me between controls 7 and 8. Adrenaline kicked in, I ran on a trail a bit, and I put on a surge of speed to beat her by about 20 seconds to control 8, but she punched ahead of me at 9, 10, and 11. I messed up 12 as I took a different route to 12 and didn't see her for the rest of the course.
Surprisingly, the activities from the previous day didn't seem to have a significant effect on me. I felt strong throughout the race and ran aggressively on the legs with trivial navigation at the end, like 18 to the end.
Much like yesterday, I struggled on some technical legs. In particular, in the absence of particularly obvious route choices and major features, I struggle. Legs of this type included 7 and 12. Controls 15 and 16 were somewhat of that form. Unfortunately, control 12 was a cataclysmic error (fortunately my only error of that form this weekend). The terrain was difficult and hard to interpret; the control was nestled in a small reentrant on a slope. I had a decent (though not perfect) attack, but I missed within 50 meters of the control. The "I've made a mistake" alarm that Ross has spoken of went off in my head, but I knew I was near the control and thought to reattack. That was a mistake, since I didn't know where I was. I tried to relocate off a huge boulder - an obvious attack point, but I was on the wrong spur. I eventually decided to bail and relocate off a trail, and I stumbled on the control. Had I immediately relocated or taken a safer attack, I would have reduced my error significantly.
I took a poor route choice to both 15 and 16. The first controls were good, though I was hesitant and inefficient on my way to controls 6 and 7.
In discussing our routes to control 8, Emily said to me that she didn't think she could keep up with me on the trail (she took a more direct path through the woods). I think that she overestimates my speed, but it was an encouraging thing to hear. I will work on my absolute running speed and wood speed in an effort to improve this apparent advantage. Her process and speed are higher through the woods, as I discovered en route to control 9.
My impression was that control 18 was further north than indicated on the map, though it's possible I was off on my bearing. The route was sufficiently safe that speed was a higher priority than accuracy.