Here is my Pig Farsta Loop 1 map.

Here is my Pig Farsta Loop 2 map.

Here is my Pig Day 2 M21 map.

Fun meet. Courses were short. I had a bad day 1 and am not sure how I feel about day 2.

Day 1 was the Farsta. I like mass start races. I felt pretty good and started out running strong, and felt "in a zone". They said I was third, I think, at the first spectator control, and I was ahead of MW at #14. I was feeling pretty good about things, but it was a pace that I did not have the skill to sustain.

I blew out on #20. I was leading Dave Frei and a cadet and I wanted to drop them. I made a parallel error after crossing a bland area, but never realised it until I didn't see the bag. Then I "figured it out" and knew the bag was "over there", but it wasn't. I was cooked. Unfortunately, my companions were not reading the map and did not know where we were. A miss is as good as a mile (at least that's the way I felt, that sinking feeling that a good race is now a bad race), and I lost 12 minutes or so when it was all said and done.

I seems like I everything wrong: I did not coach myself before the race to be wary of parallel (since it was ridge/valley) and prepare myself to recover; I panicked; I was thinking about dropping competitors rather than the O -- but the actual truth is that I never even thought anything was wrong until I didn't see the bag.

After the boom, my mind and body just quit. I don't give up, but my body refused to push it, and my brain refused to be sharp, and a blew another control soon after.

Despite the problems, it was one of those races where I felt I had potential. I've been outrunning my orienteering lately, but I've been thru that before and they sync up again eventually.

Day 2 was a bit better, tho I think I may have been happier with day 1. I was never in sync day 2, despite my total booms probably being less than 90 seconds. I just didn't have that "flow" feeling; was not transitioning thru controls well, and was not happy with my route planning. It was also not my kind of course, with lots of trail running. But I finished ahead of some good people and closer than typical to other good people, so it wasn't a total loss.

I guess when you have a total blowout day 1, you get a little cautious day 2. It is just that process of adjustment happening.

One thing that was interesting was that the elephant tracks boomed #5 on day 2. I've never seen that, and am pretty sure the bag (and/or feature) were high. I came in and saw Robbie Paddock looking lost, so I took a careful bearing off the root stocks, as Robbie's actions indicated "be careful here". The elephant tracks matched my bearing, so in I went, no bag. I look up the hill and it looks like Robbie has punched, and I look down, and see the elephant tracks have turned in that direction also. The whole field could not have been wrong, so I wonder if it was high. Or was it that everyone followed the first elephant tracks? Everyone I talked to thought it was high, and based on my bearing, I don't think the elephant could have been wrong.

There were also tons of pretty wildflowers in the woods. That is one thing nice about midwest forests, at least the ones I've been in. Somehow the forest allows a carpet of grass and wildflowers. Our forest floors are just a bunch of dead leaves. I wonder why it is different?