Orienteering race (Long) 1:00:16 [4]
Carter Caves US Champs and Team Trials, Flying Pig, KY.
Started cold and soon froze on the way to 1 running through the open area by the equestrian parking lot. Cut into the woods to the trail and took it to second reentrant then headed into the woods. Control hidden from view by a large tree until 2 m from it. Oh well. For 2, took trail most of the way then aimed off to line of rocks and veered left to ditch with control. Dropped down looking for trail to 3 but must have veered off early--never found it so I crossed the dry stream bed and headed up the side of the slope for about 300 m total. Stopped about 20 from control thinking I'd gone too far. Ran uphill, hit trail, relocated, found control, lost about 2 min. Went straight to 4, to trail, ran trail a bit till I located using reentrant on my left (with another control) and using boulder on the opposite slope to confirm location. Headed right up to control. No problemo.
Took trail most of the way to 5. Stopped when trail veered to the left, looked across the large reentrant, located the large cliff on my map and looked about 100 m to the left and spotted what I thought was my control. Feeling very clever having spotted my control from so far away, I looked at the direction (SW) so I ran hard down the side and struggled up the other side. Saw large cliff-like structure to my left but did not see a cliff on the map. A few steps further uphill and there was the control. I reached into the pit and punched (never thinking about the feature or the code). Wrong control it turns out. I should know by now that if I start feeling particularly clever, I'm probably doing something really stupid. Such was the case here. I was looking for a black dot and it didn't register that the pit was not a black dot. Bummer. Didn't check code--all due to being rusty my first time out for the season. Probably also in O2 debt from running harder than I should have.
Ran trail to 6, up the reentrant and looked across to see what I thought was my reentrant. Turned out to be shadows created by a large fallen tree, but knew my reentrant would be just a wee bit further along. Right where I expected it. For 7, Looked across reentrant to see what my contour looked like over there and ran down and up then contoured over to control using the rock features as a guide. More dry ditches and pits in the terrain than on the map. Noted my position relative to the yellow area below. Had to go about 50-100 m farther than I expected, but I stayed level and found it. Ran due E, almost, down to hairpin turn in road, up the road to the end, then in to the pit for 8.
I had looked ahead at map and terrain for 9 and realized the area would be very confusing. Read my way along, saw it was on a stream, the second stream, did not check clue, so did not realize I just needed to go to the bridge, but no lost time even with the slight confusion. Just slow trying to read my way along.
Was surprised to see my MP because I thought I'd hit every control right where it should have been, then realized how I screwed up 5. Oh well. I had set the bar low for the weekend. Didn't think I'd be limbo-ing under it though!
Taped my right arch again and it was not a problem. I felt pretty good out there, just slow and out of shape, but thoroughly enjoyed the terrain, the course, and the chance to orienteer. Great event and hope to come back here again.