Orienteering 1:30:00 [4] ****
Did blue course at ICO Robb Hill meet...sort of.
Had to start late due to coaching basketball game (thrilling overtime victory) and could not get to race and get started until a bit after 1:30, which was 1 1/2 hour after the official start window. I thought I had a chance to finish before the 3pm course closing and promised the meet directors that I would come in by 3, done or not, so that they could start control pick up.
As it turned out I had to go to the finish from 12, skipping 13 and 14. I probably would have finished in around 1:40 to 1:42, judging from my pace and the distance skipped.
I was having a nice clean race until I hit 9 and looked at my watch. I saw that to be in by 3pm I was going to have to finish fast. So I decided to run hard and take a few chances with navigation. So...guess what...I immediately started losing minutes to mistakes.
10 and 11 were both long legs with controls located in stream beds that were perpendicular to my course. I ran hard to both stream beds without terribly good map contact, hoping that I would either run into the control, or recognize where I was and head up or down stream to the control. It didn't really work for either control. 10 was especially bad; I went probably almost 100m too far up stream before I figured out where I really was.
I'm not really regreting my decision though. It was probably my only chance to finish before 3.
Other than these mistakes with my hurry-up offense, the navigating was good. I don't ever remember having the slightest doubt where I was on the map, so I was able to occupy my brain with route choice decisions.
Physically I never really got into much of a rythym with my running, but this was because of all the up-and-down. Practically every control was at the bottom of some steep-sided ravine. A couple more hill-top or spur controls would have been nice. I had plenty left at the end and would have been able to run 13 and 14 as hard as navigation would allow.
Weather was perfect. The property is not bad and not great. A few too many patches of thorny underbrush and areas of saplings with face-smacking branches.
Control picking 30:00 [1] ***
Picked up 5 controls in most technical section of Robb Hill map after race. Had to walk after guzzling delicious, but highly acidic V8 after race. Tried to go without consulting compass, which caused me to have a bunch of trouble looking around for a control on the NW side of a hill when the control was actually on the W side of the hill.
Lesson: a compass helps.