Race Reports

All race reports are written by Eric Buckley unless otherwise noted. To find older reports, follow the links on the left.

US Short and Long Course Championships

I don't have too many specific aspirations when it comes to orienteering. Basically, I like the sport and just try to do as well as I can in whatever meet I'm running. There are, however, a few specific results that would be special to pick up. Among these would be a win in a National Championship meet. With my terrain running as strong as it's ever been this year, Long Course champs on the physically demanding and technically straightforward terrain of Colorado seemed like a pretty good opportunity to do just that.

Short Course champs is held on similar terrain Friday. While I have lower expectations, I go ahead and enter my age group rather than open figuring I might as well maximize my chances. The course (map) is very much to my liking and despite a mistake on the first control, I'm in the lead with two controls to go. Then comes one of the epic booms of my career when I get on the wrong spur and compound the error by trying to fix it without relocating. Realizing that any hope is gone, I jog it in.

Far from being discouraged, the result has me in a rather positive mindset for the Long Course on Saturday. Because the long event is mass start, being able to stay with the lead group in the opening few kilometers will be important. The short course result shows that I clearly have the speed to do that.

The Long Course venue is Saylor Park, which is a bit over 9000 feet in altitude. I'm probably feeling some effects of that, but it's more than offset by not having to deal with the heat and humidity of St. Louis. Compared to my recent lunchtime runs around midtown, I feel like I have a jet pack strapped to my back.

The mass start is less chaotic than I anticipate; probably because the obvious route to the first control follows a trail so we fall quickly into single file. Leading is Ulf Lindqvist. While the Swede is not eligible for championships, he's plenty fast and it seems that keeping an eye on him might be a good idea. At the first control, a lead group of six has formed. Along with Ulf and I are Ted Good, Neal Barlow, Tor Gudmundsen, and (from the under-20 ranks running the same course) Robbie Paddock.

Map of early controls.

Not much changes over the next few controls except for Neal dropping back on an around route to 3 that doesn't work. Then, going to 5, the group suddenly splinters. Ulf is still leading, with Tor close behind. I'm still in contact until I decide to check the first depression and lose about 20 seconds. I'm not concerned about Ulf, but if Tor stays attached to him, I need to regain contact. I push hard on the relatively easy leg to 6.

I didn't get a chance to talk with Tor after the event, so I can only speculate on what happened to the leaders on the way to 6. My guess is that Ulf overran the control (his split was a couple minutes slower than mine and I didn't see him before the control - so he was probably beyond it). Tor, pushing hard to stay with Ulf lost contact with the map and when he realized they had boomed, panicked and got himself completely turned around. At any rate, the result is that I'm in the lead leaving 6. Ulf recovers and catches me two controls later, but Tor loses a big chunk of time and is out of it.

Ulf and I make good progress to the north end of the course (click the clip for the full map). This is the steepest and rockiest terrain on the map. The course notes had warned us that there was a lot more rock on the ground than on the map in this area. We find out the hard way just how that true that is approaching 11; the steep slope is a sea of boulders. We haven't taken enough care to verify our position before getting on the hillside and engage in a 5-minute Easter egg hunt before finding the stone with a flag on it. The delay is enough that we meet Neal Barlow at the control.

The next leg looks easy, so I push the pace a bit and get a gap on Neal and Ulf. I push harder to 13 and by the time I leave the road, I'm completely clear of them. I'm a bit miffed by the clue at 13. The symbol is for "middle cliff, foot of", but I don't really see a middle cliff in the circle. I use my magnifier, but still can't see it. Finally, I stop completely and take a look, but I still only see the two cliffs, one on each side of the bare rock (that's still my assessment after a lot of post-race looking at the map). I assume that the tip of the exposed rock has a dropoff and decide I'd better attack from below.

The low route is quite rocky, but I'm not too dismayed at my progress. A greater concern is that the cliffs are really big. If the "middle cliff" is at the top of the spur, it might be tough getting up there. On the other hand, if it's near the bottom, I might catch a big break. When I get to the tip of the spur, I see a whole bunch of rock, but no flag either high or low. I check a bit lower and see nothing, so I start moving up. This is scrambling, bordering on real rock climbing and I have to carry my map in my mouth to leave my hands free. After a bit of poking around, Neal shows up. Then we see Ulf leaving the area. Our search becomes more frantic. A minute later, Ted Good comes by. This is getting serious. Since both he and Ulf attacked from above, I have to assume I need to go higher. After climbing to the top of the cliffs, I finally spot the control. There is something of a cliff at the end of the exposed rock, but it's tiny compared to the cliffs on each side of the spur. I'm a bit annoyed by this rather dubious location in an otherwise excellent championship course, but there's nothing to do but take up the chase.

I'm about 90 seconds behind Ted and 3 minutes behind Ulf. Neal is behind me, but I assume he's close as he wasn't far away when I found the control. I still don't know if anybody else is in the mix. My route to 14 looks crazy, but it actually turned out to be quite good. By running up to the trail, I was able to take advantage of the fact that my legs had got a rest hunting for 13. I blast this route and post fast time for the leg. I follow that with another winning split to 15 and am only a few seconds behind Ted at the control.

Shortly after leaving the control, we hit the steepest climb of the course. Ted appears to be having some difficultly so I give it a big push and have a gap at the top. I can't see anybody ahead and with very little distance remaining, I figure I'm not going to catch anybody else. I back off the pace a bit to make sure I don't blow it on the final legs. Approaching 18, I finally see Ulf, still a minute clear. Oh, well, it would have been nice to win outright, but the Championship goal has been accomplished.

At least I hope so. At the finish I don't see any other M40 competitors and Ulf is pretty sure he was first in. After a few minutes that's confirmed as they post the first batch of finishers on the Red course. Ted, who was cramping badly over the last kilometer, holds on for the silver while Neal takes third. Robbie Paddock takes the Junior title with a very respectable 7th place overall.

I had expected the winning time to be under 2 hours, but I'm not disappointed with my 2:08. I think the terrain was a bit slower than it appeared due to the rocks in the second half of the course. At any rate, my pace was faster than the pace that won the open championship (which was slightly longer with about the same percentage of climb), so it can't have been too pokey. It all adds up to a pretty satisfying day.