Running warm up/down 10:00 [3] 1.0 mi (10:00 / mi)
shoes: VJ Supra
Warm up before MAROC event at Shooting Greens.
Orienteering race 1:19:19 [5] 6.1 mi (13:00 / mi)
shoes: VJ Supra
MAROC event at the Shooting Greens. I think the result of this was MAROC / the Shooting Greens 1 - Donald 0!
I was incredibly tired and my asthma was giving me grief so decided to run nice and steady and not make mistakes. This all went to pot at No 1 when I went right to the dark green and headed from there in to the crag. There was a reassuring, faint but obvious elephant trail on this line which went to where I thought the control should be. No flag! There were a couple of other crags on the hillside so I headed off to where they were and no sign of the flag. Back to the distinct vegetation change before the control, a careful bearing and came back to where I'd been before. Headless chicken for a few minutes then decided to head to the top of the hill and navigate back down to the crag. Again no sign of the control.
Was on my way back up the hill for another attempt when I looked behind me and saw the flag. It seemed to be a long way up the hill. Anyway, it took me nearly 16 minutes to get from the start to No 1. Game well and truly over! Also tore a huge gash along the outside of my right o shoe on a brashing.
Apart from being painfully slow, especially through the terrain, it generally went okay from there.
A small hesitation at No 3, maybe 15 seconds lost.
Too far left at No 8, 1 minute lost.
Went up the wrong re-entrant at No 10, 1 minute lost.
Couldn't persuade myself that No 12 was that far up the hill, so started searching before the boulder too far down the hill. Maybe 30 seconds lost.
Too high at No 15. 1 minute lost.
The forest was great in spite of all the rocks and the course was very well planned with a good selection of long and short legs with good route choice.
I haven't run in terrain like this for many months, so it was a good wake-up call for what I need to do if I want to do well at the British and Scottish Champs this year.
I'm dreading seeing the results from this one!