11 AM
Running 10:00 [1] 1.5 km (6:40 / km)
shoes: 201304 Inov-8 Oroc 280s
NEOC Needham Town Forest. I worked at Jim Paschetto and Bill Binette's meet in intermittent rain from 10:05 (doh) to about 11:30. The course offerings were WYOBrG, with a total distance of about 17.3 km, so I figured the opportunity had come to try winning every course at a non-trivial local meet. It didn't hurt that many of the usual threats were out of town at West Point.
I warmed up in my Orocs; my right pinky toe has been hurting for a week or so, I think primarily due to extended time in black dress shoes for opera. It only hurts in snug shoes like O shoes, and is of minor consequence.
Orienteering 37:14 [4] 5.8 km (6:25 / km) +57m 6:07 / km
16c shoes: 201304 Inov-8 Oroc 280s
Green course; 5.0/130m. Apparently my watch stopped at some control near the finish; I have listed the correct time and extrapolated the distance.
Orienteering 31:13 [4] 4.75 km (6:34 / km) +48m 6:15 / km
12c shoes: 201304 Inov-8 Oroc 280s
Brown course, 4.1/85. I was disappointed not to run sub 30, and I started to get tired.
Orienteering 27:52 [3] 4.22 km (6:37 / km) +51m 6:14 / km
11c shoes: 201304 Inov-8 Oroc 280s
Orange course, 3.6/100. I ran into Team Gallup near the start, and saw Jeff Schapiro and Piper in the woods. My stamina was waning near the end.
Orienteering 18:16 [3] 2.87 km (6:21 / km) +36m 5:59 / km
11c shoes: 201304 Inov-8 Oroc 280s
Yellow course, 2.6/75. I tried to treat it like a sprint, but there wasn't much pep left in my legs. Unfortunately, the white course had been picked up by the time I finished, so I wasn't able to complete the tour de NEOC meet.
The motivation for the Tour de NEOC is primarily to simulate long orienteering. Running multiple courses in the same terrain repeatedly uses some of the same areas and even some of the same controls. Still, running in a race environment in terrain while visiting controls is a useful exercise.
Needham was quite pleasant today. The temperature was about 15 C with intermittent rain in the morning and sunny skies in the afternoon. It's April, so the vegetation hasn't filled out, and the green briar was sparse. The woods are generally white (with a few dense and stabby sections), and while there are zillions of mountain bike trails, the terrain is complex. The map, however, is underwhelming. While Needham is small, it is convenient, simple to use, and not owned by DCR. It's sort of unusable from late May through October, but I think it is worth priority remapping from scratch because of its frequency of use.
Running 10:00 [1] 2.0 km (5:00 / km)
9c shoes: 201304 Inov-8 Oroc 280s