Orienteering at Magnuson Park

Cascade Orienteering Club hosted the 1st of their 8 winter series events yesterday at Magnuson Park in Seattle. A blend of trails, open fields and pavement (minimal) provided the setting for a fast paced race, one that would prove challenging if you weren't constantly checking and then re-checking the map. 

It was a wet start to the event as Tiff and I began our 10 minute warm up jog around the park.  As it got closer to the time when we would have to to the starting line, it seemed as if the rain began to intensify just as my nervousness did.  

I was racing the Long Advanced course which had 20 Control Points that I would have to navigate to in numerical order.  However, there weren't just 20 CP's out and about!  There was more like 60 as there were 4 other courses that participants can choose from and in an effort to spread all the competitors out.  Think of all of the others as decoys, attempting to gain your attention and derail your race.

I managed to run a relatively clean race with only a few less than optimal route choices, in which I expended more energy and ran a bit further than than the alternative.  All things considered it was a successful day and a great way to start out a fresh new base training block.  More on that later!