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

Track my O progress here

SATURDAY 18 May

Short O Champs at DVOA

Check out my map and route .

I wanted to have a clean run, and I did. I think it helped that the controls were so close, but I was also had a good day. The map made sense, I was planning ahead, I knew where I was going at every point. Most importantly, I kept moving. I never stopped, to either look at my map or figure out where I was. It felt good to move fast.

I only ran on the trails at the end of the course. The ground was too rocky to run through the woods, but I could walk fast (especially since most of it was down hill).

I didn't look at my time until I finished the race. Thirty minutes!! I was hoping to do 45! As I calculated my time in minutes per K, I realized that I had just run a personal best (in the woods. I've done slightly faster on park O courses before). I was very happy. This was a significant day for me, no matter how I hade done compared to other runners.

There were only three women running in my age class at this event. One woman is 5 months pregnant and took it easy on the rocks. The other woman is a fast runner, but I beat her by 31 seconds. That made me F35 US Short O Champ! Pretty amazing! I am training for the classic champs; I never thought about the short champs. However, claiming that I am a "champion" needs to be taken with a big grain of salt. Beating two competitors is not a big deal. However, having the best race of my life is a big deal, and I'm very proud of that.

MT = 399


posted by Mary 9:30 PM [edit]