okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Sunday, November 11, 2007
A 7 second lesson
Read the following text out loud:
One of these years I'm going to go to the orienteering race in Venice. It looks fun, really fun.
Reading those sentences out loud should take about 7 seconds. That's the difference between Eric Weyman and Dave "Legs" Linthicum at last weekend's US Champs (in M50, over two days). Seven seconds isn't much time over two days.
When we studied the split times, it turned out that Legs was in the lead at the last control, but lost it (and an additional 7 seconds) on the run in. The run in wasn't long (my split was 25 seconds, if I remember right).
It turns out that Legs lost time because he got confused by the shape of the run in (from the last control you ran a short loop to get to the finish rather than straight from the last control) and the streamers that were visible going to the last control and heading to the finish. I think Legs ducked under the line of streamers and then had to cross back to get into the chute.
There must be a lesson.
Maybe it is to keep thinking until after you've crossed the line - don't take anything for granted. In fact, the finish chute wasn't really tricky if you'd look at the map ahead of time and seen the unusual shape.
