actually it was 4.8km
Last Sunday’s Orienteering DVOA event at French Creek East went better than expected. (My second Orange course.) I guess I sort of over-prepared for it, but in retrospect I’m really glad I did. Going out and walking with the 1:15 map, and then being handed the new, 1:10 map on the day of the event was like suddenly being able to breathe underwater! Warning: this blog is post agonizingly boring but it’s an important way to document my growth and goals. If anyone actually reads it, you should get a medal.
For the #1 control, I just walked/jogged down the road, pace counting and looking for the trails on either side of the road; and then headed NE into the woods, seeing the clearing with the ruin in it right away. There was lots of waist high stilt grass around the ruin, making footing difficult especially combined with that first control eagerness. For #2 I went along the smaller trail, crossing the creek, and then headed across the white woods to the larger trail. Number 3 – I headed straight into the woods off of the T junction of the trail (where 2/8 is,) identifying the ditch and platform. Did a rough compass bearing to hit the power line south of the control, and walked along the edge of the power line break until I came to it. Saw a lone whitetail deer here.
Going from 3 to 4 was probably the trickiest control of the whole day. I started walking along the power line break and then thought about pace-counting and determining a point where I would then head towards the control area…remembered what my Dad said about the poles being accurately mapped, and so counted roughly 3 poles before taking a bearing and heading towards 4 while pace counting. The terrain from 3 to 4 was tough, lots of stilt grass again and couldn’t see my feet and also going up in elevation. But as I went over to 4 it got better and much to my surprise and delight I had aimed at it perfectly, there was the Pit and there was the control. Magic.
The way from 4 to 5 was just long, all on trails. I tried to interval walk/jog as best I could. Once it got downhill, I jogged. Apparently there was water at 5 but all I could see was the orange and white 🙂 From 5 to 6 I ran down the paved road at a good pace I think, and tucked into the woods after passing the fenced-in building. There was someone else right near the control so that helped.
From 6 to 7 I thought I had made a pretty good plan. I followed along the creek going in a SE direction, staying on the W side to avoid boulders, coming to the buildings and then trail to head over E to 7 area. Once on the trail, I pace counted and looked for the bend, that was my point to travel off of. But when I got to the bend, I just kept going straight and went between the control to my left and the boulders on my right, thinking I should be able to see it, since I had had such luck with visibility throughout the course. I was just a smidge too S and the control was obscured by vegetation – though it doesn’t look like it would on the map. Went to the road and ran up and down a little until I spotted it, and went crashing in. (Once again, stilt grass!) If there had been no control, I would have had to go back to the bend in the trail and think things through a little better. 7 to 8 was pretty straightforward, take the road and then follow the edge of the meadow. I turned N into the woods before the creek and and got it. For the last control it was just run down the trail. A little girl and her mom were at the control, taking a long time to insert the E-punch. I told the little girl she had ‘beat me to it,’ and what a great job she was doing. I did my best running to the finish but I am really not that fast!
It was a surprise to come in first place in Orange, when my plan had been to simply finish the Orange. Here are the splits. I got a lot of ribbing on the way home from Dad about ‘moving on up,’ meaning he thinks I should do an advanced course. I felt really good driving home and throughout the rest of the day, like actually deliriously HAPPY (even though I didn’t know I had won.) So happy that I made some life decisions based on wanting to be in DVOA-land for the next little while. Because if something makes me this happy, shouldn’t I keep doing it? What this day did was improve my confidence immensely, and just by a total fluke of scoring and who has done what events, put me in first place in my age category. I took a screen shot, because this is something that will never happen again (not with Angelica Riley and Sandy Ahlswede around!)
A one-time thing!
For the rest of this season, I think I’ll do mostly Orange, but try some Browns or Greens if they are at a venue where it seems appropriate. Maybe the next event, Tyler, is just such a place, because things are fairly open and the controls will supposedly be easy to see. But I don’t know yet. I’ll decide on the day of the event. By visiting the venue in advance, and walking some old courses, I really ease my anxiety about the unknown. It’s like scouting a location before the shoot day, in television. You want to know as much as you can about what to expect for the big day. I won’t always be able to do this, but for now I think it’s a helpful tool for me to ease my way into this sport. At some point, I’m going to have to get lost in the woods, but I will do everything I can to avoid it!
PS My dad did really well at FCE on this day too. His terrain was much more difficult going than what I had. GO Dad!
anniemac attack: in the woods 