The plan was from quite a bit of time to go for a long event solo to work on navigation skills. The race of the day should have been The Breakdown 18hr AR from 361Adventures but this race got canceled. Lucky enough on the same Saturday, Indianna CrossRoads Orienteering (ICO) was organizing their annual Rogain so without much thinking I jumped on the occasion to navigate solo in the 12hrs race.
The last 50min were basically a hard push starving and in hypoglycemia as I had no quick sugar rush food left, trying to get back on time to HQ...I returned the punch card after 11hr52min and 74km total with to be honest a bit of stress that I would not make it on time.
The big lessons from previous mistakes in other races start to positively impact the navigation. The big improvements were to measure distances to find attack points or CPs and pace count more often, taking more exact bearings and checking the compass more often while keeping eyes on the map and matching the surrounding features. Just 2 small mistakes, one passing a hilltop CPs and not realizing that I was already going down and another looking at the planned route instead of the real path I was following after a strategic change.
This year they put on 3 different race lenghts, 6-12 and 24hr in the same area than POCAR 2018. The 12hr was not hard choice as the weather is still really cold and I didn't want to be in the same hypothermia as POCAR during the night.
After getting the maps, the area was as described by the organizers "huge" because of the 24hr race. A wise strategic choice of route was to be made as it was obviously impossible to cover the entire CPs in 12hrs. The area was basically divided in 2 different areas. North part with high value CPs dispersed in a gigantic bushwack and south numerous lower value CPs with more trails and roads for fast pace but obviously more miles to cover.
My choice was made for the south part for 3 main reasons :
1- The total value of CPs at the south was higher than the one at the north even if more CPs were to be found with more distance to cover.
2- With just one year of orienteering, it is still easier for me to follow my position and find attack points for remote CPs from the paths and surroundings features
3- I can maintain a good easy pace on trail for quite a long time and I have to work on mileage for El Cruce stage race in Chili at the end of the year.
In 1hr the big loop plan was designed going by the most valuable CPs dropping much of the lowest value ones with the plan for the end to a quick visit of a high value CPs at the north for a double punch CPs (210points in a really short distance), and a quick last push for couple of CPs near roads if time was left.
Race started at 9:01am, I took the lead of the pack to get out of the HQ area, which is useless to mention as everyone was going a different planned route, but it gives me an idea of the pace of other teams.
For 7hrs the weather was nice, just 2 layers in a pretty sunny day....then the wind and the rain came. As stubborn as I can be, I decided that it should not last for long till I found myself totally wet and cold. Quick top layer change and rain jacket on after finding a CPs which I got lucky to find as it was not at the right spot. Only one long sleeve dry in the bag so I was a bit cold, which turn to be not that bad as I was entering the last part planned to be mostly flat but long connections on roads between CPs. Because of the chill temperature I could maintain a better pace without overheating in the rain jacket.
The most valuable part of the plan, the quick 210 points were done in 20 minutes as expected with almost 2hrs left to get on a long road stretch to get 3 CPs. It turned out that I could get just 2 as the 2nd was misplaced and I lost way too much time trying to find it to visit the last planned CP.
The last 50min were basically a hard push starving and in hypoglycemia as I had no quick sugar rush food left, trying to get back on time to HQ...I returned the punch card after 11hr52min and 74km total with to be honest a bit of stress that I would not make it on time.
The after race warm meal and drinks were more than welcome waiting the results. The race turned out pretty well with a first win for TJ79 Team Moziatex in orienteering event. The plan of covering lot of distance and collect the CPs from the south part turned to be a good decision.
The big lessons from previous mistakes in other races start to positively impact the navigation. The big improvements were to measure distances to find attack points or CPs and pace count more often, taking more exact bearings and checking the compass more often while keeping eyes on the map and matching the surrounding features. Just 2 small mistakes, one passing a hilltop CPs and not realizing that I was already going down and another looking at the planned route instead of the real path I was following after a strategic change.
The choice of routes can be improved, as I was alone and wanted to get elevation I didn't bother much about steep hills or going up and down instead of around.
