JWOC - Sprint, and Goals for Long

Not much time for the team to blog today:  returned from the sprint; had dinner and then a meeting reviewing sprint courses and going through many details for tomorrow's long courses.  Sprint results are posted at the JWOC site; Dave took a bunch of photos and has been working on them for hours; the sprint is a good day for photographers.  Andrew had a good run and seemed to move effortlessly.  Nate's dad reported that Andrew's time in the finish chute was 0.1 second off the fastest.  Ethan was not happy with his run.  Nate O felt he lost 30 or more seconds.  John had problems on two controls, and lost steam 2/3 of the way through the course (no doubt due to WUOC and a tough travel itinerary to get here, arriving only yesterday), but otherwise felt OK about his run.  Nate L made some mistakes.  Zac felt pretty good about his run; he told Dave it was his best sprint ever.  McKenzie had a clean run and moved smoothly through the controls because she was reading ahead.  Isabel had a great first JWOC run; sprint is her favorite format and she executed it cleanly.

There are lots of logistics for tomorrow; the first bus leaves at 6:30 a.m.; the start window is 9am to almost 2pm.

After dealing with all of that, Erin talked about goals for the long race tomorrow.  He said to ease into it, clean and slow.  Not hesitant, but confident that you need to build into it.  Hold back and be clean for at least half of it, and when you feel ready, pick up the pace for the last portion.

He then had the team reflect on their run today, and put it aside, then look ahead to think about their individual goals for tomorrow.

John:  Go to the attackpoint.  Actually go there instead of just looking at it.  Follow through.  Smooth entry and exit from controls.

Erin:  It will help to read ahead on the long legs.

Ethan:  Read the route for each leg backwards, starting from the attackpoint.  Take the first control slowly.  Get into the rhythm of the map at a pace I can orienteer.  Especially through the green, use my compass and trust that I can get to the point I want to be at.  On the model, I discovered there are many indistinct trails through the green; only some are on the map.  They are fast, but they can throw you off; you have to pay attention.  Following those trails took me 70m off my line, to a place I did not want to be.  I want to choose my bearing and stick wtih it.

McKenzie:  Break down routes into small chunks.   Small intervals so I don't start looking too early.  Also, be smooth at the controls, and know which way to leave it, then take a few seconds to check that I'm executing my plan.

Zac:  Get in the mode right away.  Choose energy efficient routes.  Avoid green.  Find a feature to funnel into the control.  Don't get too frustrated.

Nate O:  "Don't die; survive!"  Start out easy; kick later.  Don't let the scale (1:15,000) throw me off.

Erin:  Good point - especially if you're going out slow, the scale will mean that it will take a while to get to your target features.

Meg:  If I were running tomorrow, my goal would be to stay in contact.  I have a tendency to space out and then snap back into it and not know where I am.  Instead, I'll be cheering really loud.

Izzy:  My goal is to not overthink, to not check off every feature; that has been an issue for me.  I also want to plan backwards, and find and maintain a good pace.  Be clean.

Andrew:  Be clean.  Finish in less than 90 minutes.  Be satisfied when I cross the line.

Nate L: Go out slow.  Get into the map before picking it up.  Finish in less than 90 minutes.