Running warm up/down 15:00 [2] 2.0 km (7:30 / km)
shoes: VJ Falcon 2015
Decent bit of warming up round the field.
Orienteering race 48:39 [5] 6.75 km (7:12 / km) +100m 6:43 / km
shoes: VJ Falcon 2015
Harvester 2015, leg 2.
Will was back in 7th a few yards behind SLOW and SN (actually 6th as Jegor for OUOC was a n/c team). 5mins down on SYO the leading competitive team.
Passed SN and SLOW immediately but then made a mess of cutting through the green to #2 and lost maybe 1.5mins.
Saw SLOW and Rob Campbell for Drongo exiting #3 back down the path as I ran up to it (after I had finally spotted the junction, long grass was making paths very heard to see). Was dithering about route so decided to chase them in case that helped me spot point feature flag at the other end. Mistake. Big mistake. Couldn't find ride end and ended up wading through neck high bramble for two mins trying to get to the block with the control in.
Wary of the undergrowth after that so took tracks to #6 but planned to cut between two of them through some white at the narrowest point. Mistake. Big mistake. White forest was neck high in a joyous mix of bracken, bramble and nettles. 2mins more lost compared to those who ran round that block on the path.
Paths everywhere possible after that regardless of what the map said the forest was like. Hesitant in a few places (like finding the flag in the deepest part of the over head high bracken at #7, or spotting it from the feature at #8) but pushed on and managed to get back 3-4mins against the leaders round the last part.
Back in 4th place and 4mins down on Jenny P for SYO in the lead (who had the wisdom to use the tracks and not to cut any corners at any point on the course!).
Marcus held 4th and gained a minute on the front.
Ross moved us to 3rd.
Roger moved us to 2nd.
Jon M moved us to 1st.
Daniel had a 16minute lead and moved it out to 24mins.
Job done!