Big 5 O Week: Day 2 (Long)

An excellent Day 2 at the Big 5 O orienteering. Today was the long course, which offers more difficult terrain, more climb and more distance than yesterday's Middle. There is less path and track running and more straight-line moving on no paths. This can be through open forest with scattered logs and slippery pine needles, through forest with light undergrowth and/or brashings, and through more difficult vegetation like at stream crossings.

I had a number of sections of hesitation and indecisiveness, unsure of routes to take. I lost time weighing up running a longer way around vs a straight-line through questionable terrain. I had internal dialogue telling myself not to be a softie and to go straight-line but common sense prevailed and I ran around. But, I lost time debating with myself. I hit most controls pretty well and had a few where I was just off and a few times I questioned my decisions. Overall, I was happy with the day.

I get a kick out of trying to remember where I ran and drawing my route on my map. Course straight-line distance was 5.9km with 315m elevation and 19 controls. I ran 9km with 372m elevation in a time of 2:02. Looks like I was first in my age category and 10th overall on Course 4.

Controls 1 (hadn't gone far enough), 2 (got caught in nasty vegetation on the way), 4 (overshot), 8 (I was within 5m and didn't see it) and 9 (was just to the right of the control initially) were my worst. I lost focus from 6 to 7, moving towards 7 but looking on my map at the circle for 6 (which I already had!). I was initially indecisive on my route from 7 to 8 and again from 13 to 14. 

Today I remembered to run Strava so I have the GPS track. This is a comparison of the Strava track with how I remembered my run.