Everyone makes mistakes, and no amount of training and preparation will change that. I made mine in the first leg of the Bitter Pill which caused us to go for a 2hr run at the very start of the race. We only had about two minutes with our maps before we hit the road to the swim so instead of paying enough attention to the scale I was worrying about keeping the map dry. When we got out of the water I was confident about our next moves, along the way south I felt like the land related to the map. Unfortunately, I was wrong and instead of admitting total defeat and going back to start, we kept trying to round the corners... for hours. When we finally realized the scale of the map ("see that big pond in the map, that's that little ditch of water over there") our chances of finishing where we could have were gone.
The trick is to come back after your mistake and do everything in your power to make it right. After our gaffe, we pushed to get some good split times and at least try to be exhausted after the race. My orienteering was almost spot on for the rest of the race (or we never would have finished!), we made some good tactical decisions, and passed some teams. This was the shortest race I've done in years and I'm surprised at how different it was. Next time, I'll be sure to slow down enough to avoid the mental mistakes instead of forcing my body to make up for them.
Otherwise, the course was great for new racers. The checkpoints were very close together, the elevation gain on trail was minimal (where most beginners tend to curve downhill when approaching across an incline), and the weather was great. The GMARA volunteers were professional and full of positive support which is par for the course.
Stay tuned, we'll unpack, hose down our stuff, and recap how our new gear performed.
- Drew
Monday, August 3, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
