NM Middle Public Race (D21 course) (2013-09-14)

(I ran this race mostly together with my brother Knut, I led in the beginning, then he took over on #5, I passed him to #6, then he led to #14 before making a mistake at 15 where I got a gap. With my miss on 17 he got back in front until I passed him at the end, probably because he din't want to sprint :-) .)

The last time I ran the D21 championship course must have been nearly 10 years ago, at that time I found it easy to maintain the same speed as the best women: Well, either those women are getting faster or I'll have to admit that I'm getting older. :-)

Ran this event mostly because I'm going to do the first leg for Nydalen's 8th (!) team in tomorrow's relay championship, so I took a bit of extra care passing up and down all the slabs which the rain had made so slippery.

OK to 1 & 2, could have gone a bit more direct towards #3, but the line of cliffs forced me to make a slight detour.

OK to 4.

Very nice to #5, except for the very end, when I spotted the large boulder in the NW side of the control circle: On my competition map I could not see it so I lost some seconds here.

Good flow to #6, hit the control perfectly, but then I started orienteering from #5 again and left the control in the wrong direction!

I realized this after a few seconds, but I probably lost 5-10 sec.

The hillside down to #7 was very slippery, so I took it easy down there.

On #8 I had another map reading problem with the elongated knoll near the west side of the circle, though it had to the bigger one to the north and turned a bit south. Lost 10-15 sec.

OK to 9, 10, 11 and 12.

Good to #13 except that I thought I was a bit too high at the end and turned down, then had to swing back up again, losing a few seconds.

OK to 14.

The hillside to #15 made it far too easy to stay low, I had intended to go through the big saddle but when I realized that I had already come too far I just cut across the hill. Another 10-15 sec?

OK to 16.

Good start towards 17 but then I suddenly recognized the area from the big screen TV coverage and forgot about the map! Lost 30 sec here.

The remaining controls were easy.