Tracking my wanderlust need to get out of town once a month

Track my O progress here

Georgia A meet, day two, January 20, 2002

After a decent night's sleep, I was ready to improve my orienteering over the day before. It helped that the sun was shining and that the course covered the same area of the map as day one. Dan predicted I could break 60 minutes for a 4.1 K course; I certainly hoped so.

I took it slow to the first control (as always) and got the cobwebs out of my head. The rest of the course went smoothly. I kept a steady pace, and orienteered well. Mike passed me on the way to the 4th control, about half way through the course. He started 12 minutes behind me.

At the third to last control, I dared to look at my time: 49 minutes. I would have to push it to break 60 minutes. Fortunately, the last two controls were essentially road runs. Unfortunately, I can't run that far (continuously) yet. I walked/jogged to the second to last control, then pushed back out to the road towards the last control. I ran the whole way, even though I was hurting. I ran through the finish chute and looked at my watch: 59:41. Whew!!! (The official results listed me as 59:42, but I let it slide :) A much better day in the woods.

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Georgia A meet, day one, January 19, 2002

We had an adventure getting to Georgia. The plane was late taking off, they couldn't pressurize the cabin, we diverted to St Louis, and finally landed in Atlanta 4.5 hours late. We got to bed at 2:30 am. Not a good way to start an O trip. I should have known what the lack of sleep would mean, but I was too tired to realize it.

Not enough sleep, pouring rain, 37 degrees. I had a bad day. My brain was absent, and I made very dumb navigation errors. I made a major boom on the second control. Mike punched there just ahead of me, and he started about 14 minutes after me. By the second half of the course I was starting to think more clearly, but I was still moving too slow. A terrible day; almost 70 minutes for a 3.7K course.


posted by Mary 8:42 PM [edit]