Orienteering race 1:12:52 [4]
shoes: NB wt00
Ahh! What difference from yesterday! Such a pleasant surprise this Long race turned out to be. I was worried all morning that this one will be a difficult one but Pia put me at ease by telling me she had a lot of fun out there. I decided to believe her and relaxed a bit. Prior to the start I was alert, calm and focused. Easy #1 but I was careful and read ahead as to how to do the long leg to #2. Decided on the trail route and executed it well, hard on trail, saw #5 from it, mental check, bashed to power line, slowed down after crossing it going in to the control, careful of my location. Caught up to Rachel and Angelica and ran together to #3. Running back to power line on the way to #4 I made a decision to take the trail and got it to it eventually, after fighting through the high grasses on the power line. Cut a bit of distance to the next trail and approached the control from behind. Trail to #5. On the way to #6 I tripped over a barb wire and fell straight into mud. Although it did not bother me mentally, on opposite, kind of felt refreshing in a way, my toes on left foot got really banged up. No mistakes in attacking next few controls. After the map exchange I felt I was getting tired keeping constant focus but kept telling myself to carry on strong. Again, I decided to take the trail to get to #10 (sort of proud of myself considering a few years back I would blatantly refuse to take trails just because I thought they were not a good route choice for my short legs, stupid me). Hit #10 Ok but exited it poorly and had to traverse a marshy stream and climb extra contours on the way to #11. Fine in the control circle. I could tell I'm losing mental strength but fighting it. I read way to much on the way to #12, should have just bashed to open hill with cliffs, and I was also confused getting close to the control circle. Some hesitation on #14 route as well, trail to #15. Strong finish. Happy with my performance. Lost ~ 8 min to Sam but second place at NAOC's is not too shabby.
So the first loop was definitely better, but overall, I felt like I had great contact with the map today. Now just need to learn to replicate this more often.