O Cup #5 UKR Gators chapter
Heart Lake Conservation Area, Brampton
Spectacular, sunny day for what will probably be my final O Cup race of this season. The UKR Gators chapter hosted us at Heart Lake - a fun, varied park where I haven't orienteered since 2006. (It was the venue for the inaugural Caledon Navigators event, Thomass Caledon.)
Klepperton, DD11 and Harps had put together a fun course - intentionally longer than usual - with 11 mandatory, numbered controls and 7 "dog bones". The dog bones were pairs of controls that had to be visited in sequence (in either direction) with no other controls in between. We could skip a number of dog bones equal to our handicap, which meant I only needed to visit two dog bones. They could be done at any time as we worked our way around the rest of the course. I liked that the dog bone controls and lines were marked in blue so they stood out from the mandatory part of the course.
The dog bones didn't add enough distance to achieve the target O Cup handicap distance ratios so it would have been a great race for speedy zero handicappers (men aged 21-34) but I'm not sure any of them were there. Sometimes races are biased *against* zero handicappers so it usually averages out over the season.
The trails were icy enough that I wished I'd worn my Kahtoolas instead of just spiked shoes. (DD11, I should have made that call when you mentioned conditions were slipperier today than they had been.) I ran along the snowy edges and took things more slowly when it got dicey. Off-trail, there was enough snow to slow us down so the trails were still a better bet. I did a paved road run through a subdivision between #5 and #6 for a change of pace. It allowed me to pick up dog bone B-A on the way. My other dog bone was H-G on the way to #1.
I'm not sure of my result - probably 5th-10th overall, 1st woman. It was a hard effort - a welcome change from my moderate ultrarun training. I find it hard to push that hard when I'm just running so yay for orienteering!
Doug had cooked up some delicious chili with fresh bread and brown rice. Such a treat to get a hot lunch before heading out. It was great to chat with friends afterward. As recommended by DD11, I went to the Butter and Cup cafe for a latte. I *need* to be familiar with the best cafes in Caledon so this was important research. Then, because I'd bought a ticket to the Outdoor Adventure Show online, I drove down to the International Centre but after driving around for a frustrating 15 minutes, I couldn't find a parking spot so I left. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow morning if the predicted 100 kph winds haven't started yet.
Huge thanks to Klepperton, DD11, Harps and Doug for a terrific race. I won't be doing anything too taxing for the rest of the day. :)
In the school gym we used as our race HQ, there was a post-race survey on the wall. Great stuff. ;)