1. | The 1:5000 scale helped. I often get confused reading this map and heading up the hill to the buildings but I didn't today. Perhaps having the control near the toilets gave it away. | ||||||
2. | I was thinking the control would be one building too soon but understood as I got closer. I was still thinking of how my knee might hold up on hard surfaces but it was feeling okay. | ||||||
3. | I ran around the small green bit and onto the road. I stayed on it all the way, turning left down the hill, then right onto the trail to round the lake. I didn't think stepping into the mud was worth the shorter distance. | ||||||
4. | I wasn't reading the map well while I ran but since there was only one trail to use and it was green everywhere else, I followed it up the hill and turned left in the field. I saw it fairly soon. | ||||||
5. | +00:15 | The map was out of date so that the field edge was not correct. I followed the edge while looking for the fence corner. As I moved along, I stumbled on a small rise and twisted my right ankle hard. I heard or felt ligaments sort of ratchet as it happened. I struggled hard to stay up and surprised myself that I somehow managed to do it. I shook off the pain as I kept going and saw the fence post that helped me relocate. | |||||
6. | I practically saw it when I turned around. | ||||||
7. | I ran straightish, through the small bit of green, then moved around the house to the road. The map wasn't clear leaving #6. I spent the rest of the course being distracted a bit with thorns in my fingers. As I closed in on the control, I spotted #8 and the tree for #7. I had to run around a family to punch. | ||||||
8. | Straight to it. I'd seen it on the way to #7. | ||||||
9. | I stayed along the field edge. I was thinking the map was not showing a copse of trees when I recognized they were coded as scattered trees. Knowing there were issues about control placement, I went to the reentrant, then followed the edge of the copse to the control with no real loss of time. | ||||||
10. | I ran over to the road and ran down it. I didn't feel like I was moving very well due to my lack of running training. I had no idea of my pace. I rounded the corner and found the control on the telephone pole just as expected. | ||||||
11. | I chased a Norwegian mother-daughter team to the path, then passed them using the rough open along side of it. Though I could see the third pole ahead, I couldn't see the control and that had me doubting whether I counted correctly. As I got closer I found saw it and another guy punched a little bit before me. | ||||||
12. | +00:51 | I started to go straight then over-thought the leg. Seeing the green and looking at the map briefly, I backed out to the trail, passing the Norwegians headed to #11, then I jumped back in. The guy who punched #11 was ahead of me and wandering well past where the control should be. I didn't recognize much and expected to see a trail. At the roped exercise area, I re-read the map and ran back to the spur where the control was. The Norwegians had just punched. | |||||
13. | +00:15 | I tried to make up for my mistake at #12 by rushing out. I suppose I wanted to get ahead of the mother daughter group but in the process I didn't take a good bearing. I ran down the side of the spur to the roped area then looked again at the map and understood my error. I angled back. The control still wasn't just where I expected it which is really more a comment on my poor rushed map reading than anything else. | |||||
F. | +00:02 | I rushed up the hill but felt slow. I headed to the wrong set of punches at the end before figuring it out. |
Total Time Lost - 00:01:23