Today's event was a short-course orienteering race, or Short-O. To finish well, I knew I would have to navigate accurately. On a longer course, navigational errors can be smoothed over with fast running, but on a course with a projected winning time of twenty minutes, a handful of 30-second errors are costly indeed.

I navigated well, with one real exception. Control 11 was located on a man-made object in a bit of forest. I decided I would run a large trail until I saw a particular trail junction. From there I would run through the white (open forest) area of the map along the boundary of the dark green (heavy vegetation) area of the map. I failed to notice, however, that the white area was actually light green (light vegetation). Moreover, the dark green area had expanded into the white—I was presented with a hillside of waist-high blackberry brambles. I backtracked a little to an area that was knee-high ivy—what I imagine the entire light green area was originally—and picked my way down to the control. I could have taken a smaller trail almost directly to the control, but I had dismissed it, as it was a longer run. In retrospect, I think it could have saved me 30 seconds or more. Oh well.

While I was at the race, a big hunk of meat was cooking away at home. In the evening, when it was done, I had The Cap'n, Mrs. The Cap'n, and Jake over for pulled pork sandwiches. The meal may have come a day later than I'd planned, but it was delicious nonetheless.  ¶ 9:51 PM