TOC Championships

Format: Point-to-Point, staggered start
Terrain: park, forest, valleys
Weather: hot and sunny

This is my club's annual informal championships and BBQ, and I decided to show up and jog it just to review my map-reading skills. Turns out I don't have any after two months away from the sport!

Route Link

Mistakes and poor decisions (and what I did about them):
1. took the wrong trail through the green and missed a bridge crossing
2. faced the wrong way by 90° at Control 1, but figured it out because of a long trench cutting my way
3. mistook another small trail for a bigger one at the easy Control 2
4. waaaaay underestimated distance to Control 3 from an attack point and had to backtrack to the known feature and try again - all in heavy green
5. this one was the best: saw RC leaving down a steep hillside to cut along the Humber River to Control 4 - I thought, "what a sucker, he has to climb back up the other side." I ran along the arced ridge instead. Until my route squished me between a cliffside and a tall fence (which I failed to read on the map!) I'd have to either careen down the near-vertical hill, climb the fence, or go back. Trudged through the green back to the bottom of the map, ran up along Islington, and had to overshoot 4 because that stupid fence wouldn't end.
6. going into 6, I had to be careful again with my directions, but thankfully my sense of the contours saved me - usually does
7. after a few fine legs, and only being nearly burned alive by fire ants at Control 8's water stop, I took the wrong parallel trail to Control 11, over-ran it, and had to backtrack through some green - and whatever it was, it burned too!
8. I even managed to miss the last control right in the finish chute because I thought all I had to punch was the Finish. Gah. I haven't had this much FAIL in a long time (probably not since Thomass Caledon in January.)

O-Map

I jogged this whole thing very slowly, although I should have gone even slower to avoid some of these idiotic mistakes - when you're frustrated about not going fast, you tend to make faster, stupider decisions instead. Racked up way too much mileage here, although not too much climb.

This event was really poorly attended, and it turns out I was the only female on the long course. Guess what that means? I am now the 2012 Toronto Orienteering Club Female Champion - I got a nice red ribbon, a big-ass trophy that will have my name on it, and - the privilege of setting the course next year! It's what every TOC member fears the most each year.

It's pretty embarrassing that I won with such a poor showing, but as my cousin pointed out, in 10 years, no one will know how my name made it onto the trophy.

--Distance: 8.2km
--Duration: 1:40:06