Orienteering race 24:10 [4] *** 2.8 km (8:38 / km) +110m 7:13 / km
spiked:11/15c slept:7.5
US Relay Champs in Derby, CT.
The team voted me off the advanced legs and onto Orange, since Nate is improving rapidly and is now fast enough to keep up with almost anyone. And Nate came through, finishing not far behind Jon Torrance and Mike Sandstrom. I almost panicked on the first control. The map looked tougher than I expected for an Orange course - I didn't see where I'd get to do any trail running. The first control looked easy enough - just past the hilltop, so I hustled up the hill and stopped at the top (so I thought), but didn't see a control. Acted like a recently decapitated chicken for about 30 seconds before the next teams started approaching, and I calmed down.
The next several controls were a strange combination of running hard to try to get ahead of the cooperating DVOA teams, letting them lead me into controls, and being distracted by their mere presence. When all was said and done, I came thru the spectator control only slightly behind where I would have wanted to be. The lower loop started well, but when we hit the rough open fields, I couldn't run quite as quick as Greg, and lost just a bit of ground. Then I made a huge mistake. I came around the thicket and punched C12, tried to take a quick rough bearing, and also use the parking lot as a guide, but I was pulled too far left, and did not see the gap in the trees to the next field, so I wound up almost at the next parking lot, which took a minute to sink in. Corrected thru some nasty thorny stuff to add to the weekend's bloodletting, and ended up punching about 1:45 too late, and behind Angelica. I was able to get back ahead of her on the way to the finish, but didn't have my team where I wanted to leave them.
Running warm up/down 12:00 [2] 1.41 mi (8:30 / mi)
w/up before the relay.
w/dn was to get to the car and commence listening to the Bills game. They gave us some unexpected hope when Trent Edwards came in to lead a touchdown drive on his first NFL series, but that was all she wrote.