Night O' race 1:54:30 [4] *** 10.23 km (11:12 / km) +129m 10:32 / km
spiked:10/16c shoes: Nike Trail (Blue)
Annual ICO Eagle Creek Night-O in Indianapolis.
Score-style. A lot of fun.
I planned a route to clear the course, but I was really skeptical that I could clear it. I expected to be forced to drop about 4 or 6 controls, but I was going a lot slower than I expected, and I ended up dropping 10.
I was really happy with my tactical planning during the event---I probably could have gotten one more control, but I chose not to, and ended up with 5.5 minutes to spare.
This was kinda easy orienteering, but I did a few really aggressive routes.
Most controls were worth 1 pt, about 7 were worth 2, and 1 was worth 3. So I made it a point to get that 3-pointer. I did okay, but it was nearly a disaster. The map was pretty bad---one large area of open yellow was no better than rough open with prairie grass over my head, and I never found a huge area of ROST I was using as an attackpoint. I said to myself---"You've gone far enough", and I went straight west trying to find a shallow reentrant system on a vague hill. It wasn't pretty, but directly in front of me I saw three light sticks. I had seen competitors with light sticks, so I figured it was a group standing there. I just kept going at them, and then I realized the light sticks were actually hanging there marking the flag. Then I totally screwed up---I intended to go straight east toward the interstate, but I failed to notice that I was boxing myself in with the impassable fences. And I also ended up going NE rather than E, which is a major mistake on my part. Wasted at least 5 minutes. Probably more.
Anyway, it was another amazingly fun Night-O.