The last Espoorastit and fitness-orienteering event for this year. But there might be some city-sprints during the winter.
Pretty steady going with no major mistakes. Control #6 is the best split, the others look pretty bland, but the overall result is good since I am 16th out of about 100. The long straight path south of the #2-#3 line would maybe have been faster and easier. I almost ran past #8 before turning back. Close to #11 it was hard to tell where I had crossed the path+river.
This was the last itärastit event for this year. See you next year in April again!
#2: wrong direction and slow pace out of #1 is probably the cause of the bad split.
#4: completely lost it when almost inside the control circle. Through to the big road and even ran along the road in the wrong direction for a bit...
#11 down the hill too much to the north, then looked for the control in the wrong place before I found the bend in the road,
#15 tried to look for the path marked with a thick dashed line, but there are many paths and it's not clear which one to follow. Might have been faster to simplify the plan and run to the big road behind #10 first.
The last Iltarastit event for this year.
A map with lots of details and lots of controls. 24 controls on a 7km course means 280 m/leg on average - at a pace of 10 min/km that means there's a control to punch every 2min 48s during 70 minutes of running. I was slower than that however, roughly 81 min...
Had to use a hand-drawn map, since they had run out of printed maps.
Towards #1 I am correctly on course but then run down the hill to some big stones which were not the correct ones. Probably +2 minutes and the second-worst split.
#5 is jointly the best split (with #9), but I would have liked to stay along the edge of the blue swamp and not drift right and high up on the hill.
#10 is the worst split, but a short leg so not that much time lost. Maybe everyone else used the two paths and the flag was clearly visible from the second path?
Overall 10th out of 62 runners which is OK.
Maybe a bit straighter to #1 would have been better? Then a slow S-bend avoiding the wet(?) bit between #1 and #2, which was very slow. Similarly straighter out of #2 towards #3 would have been faster.
Surprisingly #4 is the best split - probably because someone else was in front of me until just before the control...
The route choice down the hill from #4 towards #5 was not fast, and I had to backtrack and look for a place to cross the stream. Rounding the swamp to the north would have been an option too. Then close to the control I climb the slope to slightly the wrong cliff loosing a little time.
#7 through to the finish are all quite straightforward. Just after #7 I almost hold the map 180-degrees the wrong way but quickly correct my mistake. Before #9 I follow someone else onto the yellow field when staying on the path would have been better.
+3min loop when just inside the control-circle at #3. I blame other runners that distracted me.
+4min loop east of #5, also from within the control-circle, because I thought I had crossed the swamp west of the control and needed to look for it more to the east.
+2min at #7 because after the big swamp it was difficult to know where exactly through the green thick area one approached the control, and I mistook the westerly big stone for the more easterly one directly on the #6-#7 control-line.
Without the mistakes that cost +9min a top-10 placing would have been possible - well maybe next time...
Nice going on four out of eight legs of the course.
Out of #1 I have the wrong direction and loose 2-3minutes probably.
#5 (3 on the map) is a horrible mess where I drift down the correct hill not really knowing where I am - worst split by far 🙁
A great big loop around #2 that cost at least +3 minutes 🙁
Then I ran past #5, just didn't look in the right direction at the right moment. Maybe +1 minutes here.
Out of #8, should have avoided the green dashed slow area by rounding it clearly north or south - very slow going until I reached the road. Another minute lost there probably.
Overall an easy course with emphasis on running - as long as clear and good route choices could be made...
Good going on the four first controls, after which I was 6th overall (at best I was 3rd at #3). Quite an uneven performance after that.
A slow north rounding of the hill to #4 - south via the road might have been better.
The short and innocent looking leg to #6 proved fatal. I've run probably within 10-20m of the correct stone but failed to find the control. Worst split and ten placings lost here 🙁
A good long leg to #10 is then followed by overconfidence and a U-loop to #12.
#13-#14-F at the end were fairly straightforward.
Worst split (45th) and at least +1min of error right at the start on #1. The first control always deserves a bit of respect - steady and safe is better on #1 than too much speed&risk and a mistake.
#2 OK. Some kind of U-bend on #3 but not too much time lost. Towards #4 I slow down midway for some reason, maybe a bit north and around the blue swamp would have been better.
I almost run past #5 but stop and look around for the flag at the last possible moment.
#6 is the best split (5th) although it did not feel that special. Safely along the path first and then via the bigger cliff that indicates a direction into the control circle. #7 again OK.
#8 and #9 were clearly in the toughest part of the map and I had decided to take them extra carefully.
#8 went well first on the bigger path, then up towards the control on a smaller path, and the last bit through the blue swamp.
#9 did not go well. I take a straight and direct route but that means climbing and descending a lot of cliffs and hills. Over 3 minutes lost to the best runner. It would probably have been much better to go directly northeast out of #8 to the path (yellow arrows), follow the path as far as possible, and then find the control from above (yellow arrow).
#10-#11-F are all along the big path running parallel to the road. When I arrive at the path before #10 I'm unsure if I am left or right of the control? Probably +1min lost reading the map and looking around.
#11 and F require no orienteering, just trail-running.