Orienteering 1:43:00 [4] *** 14.3 km (7:12 / km) +170m 6:48 / km
ahr:179 max:189 spiked:27/33c shoes: Walsh Ultra - 2010
Black course at Ashridge. Probably an unwise decision, and might have been OK had I not cycled over, but wanted to see how unfit I am. Manged the first hour alright, just a silly error on #7 where I cut through the earthbank further south and the depressions then didn't make sense (1'+ lost) and a bit of a bobble on #9.
After control 20 started to feel tired, was generally trying to avoid the paths as they were quite muddy, but offered safer routes without much distance gain later in the course. Banana-ed #21 after seeing cj, not too badly though. But then then slowing down considerably and subsequently misjudging distance - cost time on 24 and 27 where was looking too early. Was too far north for 25 but slow to correct as couldn't see feature/flag amongst the fallen trees. And one of the few brambles on the area won the battle with my elbow when tripped late on in the course.
Had to be fairly on the ball with the navigation as so little around to relocate off and features often only visible from 20m or so - plenty of compass work required and quite happy how I hit most controls. Could be a really difficult area at night.
GPS 15.5k