Orienteering race 1:13:20 [5] **** 8.7 km (8:26 / km) +220m 7:29 / km
spiked:21/27c shoes: VJ Falcon
Second race of the (fab) FVO weekend, M40L at Scottish O-League at Touch.
Hadn't really given this race a thought in amongst planning the sprint race, woke up feeling a bit fragile, had some breakfast, checked out my start time and found it was in not long over an hour, not ideal!
Ran all the way to the start (2.5km) so that helped a lot - course was mainly uphill for the first 25 mins or so which did not help so much...
Struggled with the scale on the first two short legs in the wood but tried to push hard when out on the moor after that. Could see a Clyde top well in front, wasn't catching them and couldn't work out who it was - turns out it was Rosco on M21L which had a common section with us from our #2 to our #10 - looking at splits he pulled away from me by a huge 8 seconds through that section. Steve Nich (off first start with no tracks in the bracken) and Fraser both were quicker than us through here - Steve was about half a minute quicker than Doug T who won M21L.
Got caught 3 mins by another Clyde top with Dave Robertson inside it on the way to #13 - I knew he had me in sight and was reeling me in but couldn't do much about it. Got in front of Dave again at #14 and led him all the way to the tricky flag at #15 as we went back into the wood - somehow this got him the fastest split and I am only 4th on the leg! Maybe should have taken the easy option and run M21L as this leg was common too and they all took much longer...
Then I went a different way from Dave to #17, got confused and started navigating to #18 instead. Realised buit climbed too high for #17, then went too low to wrong crag at #18 and made a total dithering mess of the route to #19, lost 4 mins through this section.
Sorted myself out round the tricky last section in the wood in amongst all the contour detail and crags, was suffering a bit though and not going as fast as I should have been - only 3 seconds down on Martin Ward with three short easy controls left but he finished 30 seconds in front.
Steve N won in 64, impressive time particularly off first start. Dave R kept it going to do 66, Fraser was 68, then just behind me Ben did 75 and Brad did 76.
Pleased with how I ran across the moor but gave it all away through 17-18-19, would have been happy with sub 70.
Another good day and good event though - altogether a great weekend!
Running warm up/down 15:00 [3] 2.5 km (6:00 / km)
shoes: VJ Falcon
hangover-clearing run to the start, seemed to be uphill for a long way but got there just in time - definitely v well warmed up ,