Orienteering42:45*** 4.34 km (9:50 / km) +216m7:53 / km ahr:148 max:168 spiked:9/11c shoes: Jalas - sz 10
Middle distance at West Point National Meet. 3.7k SL, 135m advertised climb. Deep Hollow map which is typical WP - somewhat minimally mapped. Control hanging was also typical WP, with all controls in the circle but not necessarily on the mapped feature at the center. Course was also typical WP using unimaginative legs to straightforward features but with lots of climb.
An OK run after the first two controls where I lost about 1:30 on each. Distracted on the way to 1 by Bob Turbyfill yelling across the woods asking what course I was on (what an a-hole - you'd think someone with his experience would know not to disturb competitors on a course, even if he was trying to correct a screw-up (which didn't affect my course) and effectively adding to the unfairness already affecting Brown runners). I can't fully attribute the error on 1 to the distraction. On 2 I think I came in at the right level but the bag was hung on a higher, possibly unmapped cliff so I spent a little time looking down then up the spur. The rest of the course was OK but AP says I lost some time at 4, maybe because I didn't see the crossing point and waded the stream. 3rd M60, 10th overall on Green X.
2 PM
Orienteering25:48*** 3.36 km (7:40 / km) +43m7:13 / km ahr:151 max:181 spiked:19/21c shoes: Falcons 7
Sprint at WP National Meet on Camp Natural Bridge map. 2.5k SL, 58m climb. Lost about 3 minutes on number 4 as I lost contact as I came into the obstacle course area and then ran around trying to figure things out. Finally relocated on control 7, having passed right by the control I was looking for. One other minor (relatively) error on 16 as I checked another bag. A fun sprint doing a good job using the terrain. 5th in M60, 19th overall on Green.
Field Checking4:58:34*** 5.57 mi (53:36 / mi) +248m47:05 / mi ahr:83 max:148 shoes: Jalas - sz 10
Another walkabout on the Storrs Pond map looking for places to hide flags. Unmapped rootstocks should make good hiding places. :-)
Nice weather - sunny, 50's.
Orienteering1:10:28 7.45 km (9:27 / km) +108m8:49 / km ahr:134 max:154 spiked:9/14c shoes: Jalas - sz 10
Classic distance at Troll Cup on southern part of High Rock map. 5.2k SL, 130m climb. Good technical terrain but lots of unmapped rock. And near perfect weather, sunny and in the 50s.
A pretty bad run. It was as if I forgot how to orienteer, at least through control 6 where I regrouped and refocused. Sloppy on 3, 4, 5 and 6, completely losing map contact on 5. Probably lost 8-10 minutes on these controls. Lost more time on the three control-pick controls after the long leg. Small pines in this area reduced visibility and the controls were pits and a form line reentrant, so they were all bingo controls - in the interest of fairness, I think the courses should have avoided this area. 6th in M60, 13th overall on Green X.
A nice job overall by NEOC, effectively using a single map for three events with minimal overlap. And awards were done by noon on Sunday! Thanks to all the volunteers for putting in the time and effort.