Wessex Night League, Boscombe.
http://www.wessex-oc.org/wp-content/uploads/event/...Really a home race for me so I really wanted to do well here after messing up the strategy badly the last 2 seasons and also being in a good position in the league this season.
Ian updated the map so it wasn't an odds-evens format, a straight 1 hr race. Did mostly OK from a strategy/plan perspective and ran OK, except from the beginning, but after suffering through the zig-zag climb I felt good and pushed for most of the race.
I missed a couple of routes and lost time in a few other places:
#38 both veered into the schoolyard earlier than I should have for the alleyway - in hindsight it may have been possible to go through but it was marked as residential so didn't risk it. Also someone cleverly rotated the control around the fence so it was difficult to spot although was looking right at it, another guy was looking at the same time. After a few secs I looked again and saw it. Lost about 20s here altogether.
#47 lost confidence in where I was before the control so slowed down - lost maybe a couple of seconds only
#35 to #34 was OK but for some reason, Jason did it in half the time it took me? 1m faster than anyone, I suspect he found a gap in the fence that shouldn't have been there - certainly not according to the map
#32 to #33 I missed the gap amongst the houses which would have been the fastest route, to be honest, most other people haven't seen it either, I only found it after seeing a few people having significantly better splits so I started to be suspicious and looked at the map really really closely. Probably would have been about 45s faster
#37 was on top of the steps, but I lost my control descriptions by this point (probably would have not looked anyway to be fair) and on the map the stairs look like a stone wall anyway, so I ran around the whole block, adding about 1:05 to the route. James had the right approach: he did go to the bottom of the stairs thinking if it wasn't stairs, he could continue and round the block from the North and do not lose time, but gave the stairs a chance. I didn't think of that - should have.
The rest was OK so probably about 2:10 or so slower than an ideal run on my route with my speed.
But- that's just for improvement, happy to have finally won in Boscombe. It is also healthy for the League before I am off for a week not racing in the next one.