Earlier this month I participated in fourteen orienteering events in two weeks. A few were big, serious races in some really spectacular terrain, others were local meets that I was able to attend in between. One of these 'local' meets provided minor navigational challenge but allowed all-out running - if you could keep your eyes off the scenery!
The sprint race at Niagara Falls was hosted by the Buffalo Orienteering Club on Goat Island, the hunk of rock that separates American Falls from Horseshoe Falls. What the course lacked in navigational intensity (map) it made up for in the views.
As in most orienteering races, this one had a staggered start, each runner starting with 1 minute of separation before the next. Because of that you generally feel like you are running a time trial - it's possible to run the entire course without ever seeing one of your competitors or knowing how you stand. In this case I started a minute behind New England Orienteering Club runner Jeff Saeger and knew that it would be possible, but tough, to catch him. At the start I watched as he ran off and disappeared around the building and I got ready to go. The first control was visible from just after the start, and the second was no problem, around a sculpture. The third control (see views link above) was right on the edge of the viewing area for American Falls and the only way down was a staircase that was occupied by a lot of clearly befuddled tourists. At this point Jeff and I crossed each other, he on his way out of the control and back up the stairs to the next. This next leg (to #4) happened to offer the only real route-choice on the course. I chose to stay low on the rising path rather than take the stairs, which seemed to pay off - I reached #4 clearly having closed the gap on Jeff. But I had started running really fast and didn't know if I could maintain it.
The next several legs were fairly straight-forward and I tried hard just to run hard and straight. By the spectator control (#12) I think I was within 15 seconds of Jeff. I had pushed so hard to get to that point that I had a bit of a brain fart - I ran in what I thought was the right direction... only it didn't quite make sense. It took me several seconds to realize that I was misreading the lower terrace on the map and was about to go way off track! Since Jeff was in control and didn't muff that one, that cost me a bit in the race to catch up. I pushed the last two legs and powered in to the finish with a time 13:02 - hadn't caught him but I came to within 12 seconds. That time was good enough for 5th overall on the course and first woman by over 2 minutes, so I was certainly satisfied with my run. However, that little goof on 13 cost me in breaking 13 minutes, a time the course setter didn't think anyone would break! Of course, they didn't need me to break 13 - the fastest man on the course, Darius Konotopetz, ran 10:50!
This was a nice treat after the really tough racing the weekend prior in Hamilton, ON. That terrain was steep, with sticky clay mud hampering uphill progress. Navigation mistakes there were costly. The Niagara Sprint, in contrast, was almost a road running race, with a few bits of navigation thrown in. It was pretty awesome to run through the gawking tourists and have the mists of the falls showering us as we ran!
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