Ontario Orienteering Championships - Middle Course

Map: Natchez-Zeller
Terrain: woods, urban, mostly flat
Weather: chilly but sunny

20 controls over 5km made this into a very long sprint, and since the terrain was quite flat, and the scale was 1:7500, I soon realized that just a quick rotation of the map would allow me to run straight from one control to the next. Quite a clean run. I kept verbalizing what I saw around me as well as the decisions I was taking, something I picked up from team navigation.

Route Link

Control 5 tripped me up, as I went in too early, but then had to back-track anyway through an obvious change in vegetation. Still not sure what happened there. I found a few times that my running line was a bit off my compass line, which is a testament to how little orienteering I've done this season. It didn't affect me on this sprint map, but would make an impact on the long course the next day.

I'm getting really good with fixing mistakes, though, without getting flustered. I overshot 18 but realized it when the terrain was much too flat and went back. Being very aware and methodical would save me from some potentially catastrophic mistakes on the long course.

--Distance: 5km
--Duration: 55:02