JWOC Tour / SG3 H55 (2015-07-07)

My sister did a good job with the course setting today, even though my running shape is still rubbish I really enjoyed this race and managed a pretty close to perfect race:

1) It might have been possible to be a little bit faster with a more direct line, but I had decided up front that I really didn't want a repeat of the mistakes I did yesterday, so I took the easy option along the marshes and the open area, then a bearing up the hill from the last stream.

2) I considered going straight here, but the terrain was quite nice up the hillside so I once gain took the safe route via the marsh to the path. I took a compass bearing from the drinks control, checking the open marsh, the knoll and the boulder before the control boulder turned up as expected a couple of meters to the left, behind a big old spruce.

3) This was a nice control for those who were in good shape, I struggled all the way:

I intended to go east of the narrow lake with a narrow waist marked as a dangerous marsh. I guessed that this marsh might be OK so I aimed so that when I first spotted the lakes I could see that there were a few trails from previous runners, and no obvious mud holes so I cut across: The marsh was indeed bouncy, but I never fell through the surface. :-)

The rest was just keeping to the proper compass bearing. Going up the final hillside I spotted an area with a bunch of young birch trees bent double, obviously from heavy snow loads a few years ago, this had to be the patch with green stripes so I kept to the right of it, then ran (and walked) up to the top, slid alongside the index contour and continued on my old bearing.

4) Pretty much transport, I could see the open marsh spur into the hillside from 200 m away so I just aimed slightly to the left and hit the flag exactly.

5) This leg had several possible routes, I know that some runners went a bit more right, linking together the path (i.e. ski trail) segments, and the winner of the first two days, Jögge, took a wide left route along the marshes, then contoured into the control, but I believe my route might have been the best.

6) Nice! Down to the marsh, then contouring along the hillside until the open area and a bearing down to the boulder.

7) The vegetation down to the first marsh forced me a little bit further left than intended, so I passed on the inside of the small knoll instead of the index knoll where I ran towards #1, but time wise these two options must have been very close to identical.

8) After the bridge across the river all the runners in front of me went further up the hill but I decided to run along the hillside and hit it perfectly.

9-Finish) Transport, on very tired legs.

Orienteering wise I'm very happy, I had good plans for all the controls and executed them very well, with zero hesitations or control circle wobbles. With my pre-surgery legs from two years ago this could have been a clear win, but today I was almost 4 min behind Sixten W so I need to improve!