Orienteering race 2:12:03 [3] 9.4 km (14:03 / km)
BFLO Canal Cities Long at Chestnut Ridge - Red Course
I was hoping for a better performance than the Middle, and started out well enough. C3 I was too far right coming out of the woods, but still had a very nice split, as I ran hard in the open and up the road. C4 was a problem, as I ran nicely through the woods on a rough bearing and hit the stream at a bend for an attack, but I was farther right than I thought and it took me way too long to figure out that I had to run toward the local hilltop in order to find the flag.
Some trouble on C6 (wound up way left when I hit the big clearing), and too slow in the woods heading to C10, but otherwise fairly clean thru C14. I was especially happy with my route choice and effort going to C12. Missed C15 left.
C16 was a disaster. Split says I lost 25:26, but it was even more than that, as I had an opportunity to move quickly, had I kept my wits about me. What all went wrong? Had selected a route that was mostly road, then trail, to get pretty close, pretty quickly. But when I got to the first road, I somehow ended up focusing on C5 instead of C16, so I thought it would be a good idea to hop down to the ravine instead of crossing on the bridge. The ravine I was in bent to the right, so I got nervous and climbed out. Stayed close to the rim for a bit, then started heading east and followed the top of the next, smaller, ravine, crossing it when I had a chance. I was thinking it would turn left and point me towards the control, but I was not on the right one. Ultimately decided to go east until I got to the boundary. That never happened. Instead, I hit the big ravine and I could see the rest room near the start across the way, so I was way left. Tried to angle towards C17 and cut south, but wound up running almost randomly on trails, trying to figure out which ones were mapped. I finally decided that when I hit an E-W trail that I would run east to the boundary, and I did. But the boundary I hit was in the south part of the clearing well S of the control. By then, the wind was long out of the sails...
Just chugged in from there.
Running 4:00 [3] 0.53 mi (7:30 / mi)
Running around to get to the start, after making sure the finish was OK.