Bronze at COC 2010 Long course

In my opinion, Elite runner’s goal is to simplify the map, in such a way that makes orienteering fun. So, before the start my goal for the race was to indentify the most obvious features on the map. In my scenario, it was top of the hills and lakes- those are most dominate features on the map. I was happy to see most of the top hills were rocky and easy to run on. From the course planner notes, I knew that there are no trails in the beginning of the course.


So, my 1st route choice was really simple because it was along the trail and up at the reentrant. On the second leg, I ran slowly with an idea to adjust to the map. I caught Nick Duca (Stars), who started 3 min before me in the RED GROUP. After 2d CP he ran away and I caught him again at Cp 6 (long leg). Legs to CP3 and CP4 were simple as to stay on the top of the hills and make sure I was running on a right compass bearing. CP5 was easy one around on the road. CP6 was the longest leg, and it usually the main leg on the long course. Again, I was running on top of the hills with the lakes on both sides. Cp7 was short and it meant to be a turn point, so no problem with it.

CP8 was another long leg, where the good route choice could save you few minutes. I went straight and was running strong there, but in the last 100m, where I should cross the beaver dumb, I could not do so- it was too thick. In the end, I ran around to CP8 through CP9 (2min lost). It was ok because I ran through CP9 and half of the CP 10 leg without looking at the map after- that extra loop to CP8 saved me time on the next 2 splits. CP10 was a map exchange point.

CP11 was a 50/50 choice, and I went right- almost to the road. After CP11, I could not find the beaver dumb between the lake and marsh, so I get caught by Nick again. I ran straight till CP14. To CP 15, I ran left through islands; I did not check the compass bearing, and went to much right on one of them, so I had to cross an extra dumb- I lost 1 min there.CP16- two towers, two hills, marsh, and under two cliffs.
CP17 had two possible route choices (left or right). I went left to the broken fence (good feature on this map), two hills, marsh, three hills, beaver dumb, hill, beaver dumb and hill with CP on the bottom of the cliff. I passed John Torrence- another RED GROUP runner. CP18- beaver dumb, 2 hills and another dumb, followed the cliffs till the control point.

CP20 was easy and good for me because I could use my speed a little bit. I ran fast and got CP 20 without mistake through the semi-open area. To CP21, I ran straight, even though I had a choice of the road- but I was confident on my orienteering skills. CP 22 was a classic traverse leg. I stopped to drink water and got caught by Nick again. To CP 23 I went straight through the top of the hill and trail as a catching feature. Running to CP 23, I got a felling that there is something different with the map and I thought it is because it is a forest part. After the race, I saw that the last forest part was mapped by a different cartographer. So, I had to slow down and use trails as a save feature. I ran with Nick till CP25 and after it I ran as fast as I could. I knew it will be a good result because I was running clean and had fun. I finished third, and as I like to say: “More fun you have, better your results are!”