Orienteering race 53:51 [3]
NAOC Middle at Delaware Gap. Overall solid result. Lots of hesitation due to poor visibility and light rain. 2-3 errors. M60 (Green), 7th overall, 4th NAOC. Not as close as it looks: 8 minutes from 3rd.
S-1: Trail run to bend, bearing.
1-2: Short leg - bearing.
2-3: Took cautious, slow route: cross trail, right up reentrant, up rock wall to cliff and boulder, bearing and walk in. Route not well planned. Trail to rock wall faster. -1-2 min.
3-4: Bearing past rock wall; did not see 'yellow' ahead; up to big field on right; bearing to control. -1 on short leg
Walter (-4) and Bubo (-2) caught up to me. Surprised to wee Walter this early. He'd been fast and clean.
4-5: Over know to reentrant, turn left. Much further than expected.
5-6: bearing, past rock faces; 'next' rock face. Again seemed further than expected - darn I'd better start pace counting.
6-7: Lost map contact on bearing. Did not plan route. Push over one more spur, saw rock face.
7-8: Bearing, last rock face - yes.
8-9: Bearing and pace count. Pushed past small reentrant. I'd aimed further left than intended. Went up quite a ways.
9-10: Bearing and read spur on short leg. Control to right.
10-11: Aim slightly right, down reentrant.
11-12: Pace count to knoll. Left of intended. Should have stayed on knoll. Instead dropped and checked (too many) rock faces. I did notice to stay high.
12-13: Bearing to broad reentrant. Read steep spur, handrail on left, rock faces on way well. Last time seeing Walter and Bubo.
13-14: No good route plan. Bearing was too green. right to stone wall and reentrant or left up to hilltop/gravel would have worked well. Saw huge rock face on right, could not find on map, up its spur. I MUST find rock face on map. yes, found it, then bearing. - 3-4 min Glasses got wet and foggy through small white pines. tough to read map and terrain rest of way.
14-15: Up over gravel on good bearing. Followed guy into control. Mine, not his!
15-16: Saw ruin on ground, had not seen on map. Had to notice 'knoll is beyond ruin'. Okay, hesitation.
16-17. Bearing. Checked control on rock face. Good attack to mine.
17-18: Bearing, lots of people. Not in first reentrant. Pushed on. Yes, on left.
18-19-F: Very tired up hill and run in.
Used 'train of runners' very well. Too much reliance on bearing without features or planning. Still a solid result - lots of hesitation for Middle course but kept all errors smallish.
Running warm up/down 8:00 [2]
down then up trail back to start. Long walks to Arena and Start also helped.