Orienteering race 1:23:57 [3] *** 4.8 km (17:29 / km)
spiked:8/11c shoes: Jala Jukola Spider 6 #3
Green course at Hickory Run, set by Sandy (excellent course!). This would have been much easier in the early spring, but the woods were nicer than yesterday at PEEC. A little light rain at the start, and wet woods, but temperature was cooler (low-mid 70s) and bugs barely apparent, so a good day for orienteering.
Starting near the same time as Rob Wilkison; I let him go first and waited about 45 seconds until I started. Saw him again heading towards 5 (I hadn't yet found 4, didn't see it near him, and did the right thing by heading towards the nearby road to get relocated). However, I never saw him again, because I took a more creative route to 5. Because my glasses fogged up early I was only using the magnifier and had trouble seeing what was going on between 4 and 5 (stream with clumps of laurel/rhododendron nearby) -- couldn't tell if the stream bed was deep or not so plan was to loop somewhat right of the line to hit the stream further up where contour lines were more visible (not steep).
Between the thicker vegetation (mapped as light green, but this is full-blown summer foliage), and not seeing smaller details well I went even farther right of the line than I wanted, going as far north as # 7 (saw a bag, checked the code figuring if it was the right code I'd know exactly where I was, and it matched). Manage to bobble the approach from there, even, and went too far left, hitting the stream 100 m south of the control before getting my act together. No real problems from then on; had 4th fastest split to # 8 (of 20 on green) which was basically a follow-the-bearing control which I don't usually do as well on, so I'm happy about that. Saw #10 on my way to 2 so I knew what that looked like. Finished 7th of 20, about 7:30 behind Rob Wilkison and a good 33 min behind the leader (John Campbell), but relatively pleased with my effort.