Note
I am always the first awake when camping and this was no different. I got the espresso pot cooking and the aroma woke Charlie. After a breakfast of oatmeal, bagels and bananas, we headed off to the middle race.
Orienteer race 51:48 [4] **** 5.4 km (9:36 / km) +120m 8:38 / km
shoes: Montrail Vitesse 610
Another beautiful day in Canada but I sensed that it would heat up later. I got warmed, stretched and hydrated before the race and my head was in a good calm place for the start. I spiked 1 and 2 but strayed a bit west to 3 and lost some time. (... more control details later ...) Other than a few small and one medium error, I was pleased with my race, especially considering that the more technical middle distance is often difficult for me.
Good Stuff:
- calm mindset
- moved fast and fluid through the woods
- active orienteering (looking ahead for expected features)
- map contact
Bad Stuff:
- one poor route choice
- some cloudy thinking (& detailed map reading) when brain low on O2
- aggressiveness (wasn't a goal but should be someday)
Run warm up/down 25:00 [2] 2.5 mi (10:00 / mi)
shoes: Montrail Vitesse 610
Warmup/down around various races.
Orienteer race (sprint) 16:30 [5] *** 2.3 km (7:10 / km) +200m 5:00 / km
shoes: Montrail Vitesse 610
Sprint around the Bass Lake Rec. Area. These are probably good practice for O2-starved thinking but I'm rarely thrilled by a sprint race. This was well set (despite the massive hill) but it just didn't do it for me. My result was poor so maybe this tainted my opinion of the race. I started fine and ran hard but by the time I had to climb the same hill the third time and find a boulder on a bearing, I was tired, stupid & lost a lot of time. I also lost some time due to a brain-dead parallel error.
Good Stuff:
- ran hard for most of it
- read the map and planned pretty well
Bad Stuff:
- cloudy (low O2) thinking
- morale cracked on the last hill and I walked all of it
Note
Charlie and I headed back to the campsite for a fine dinner of pasta with broccolli florettes. Mmmmm. We then returned to the shelter where the sprint took place and had a little more food at the pot-luck. It was now time for the main events of the weekend - the 3-legged string-o and the o-shoes tossing competition. Charlie and I made a reasonable attempt at the 3-leg-string-o but were quickly eliminated in the knockout format. I had better luck in the o-shoes competition (where you throw your o-shoes instead of horseshoes) by making it to the finals and received GHO shirts for my kids. They will love them. Nick did a fine job as organizer/commentator and a great time was had by all. I again wound down the evening reading Inanna's book in the tent and got a decent night sleep.