Scottish Sprint Champs Race 1 - Seaton Park - Course A - 2.7km - 2nd
Felt really up for this, legs had recovered well however back was a bit worrying. Luckily never pulled anything. Good knowledge of the park but haven't run in the campus for a number of years now, and with the added bonus of some appearance of tom athletes (Murray, JohnR, Rosco), it was going to be some great training/racing.
Didn't start too fast, just flowed through the easy controls, 1, 2, 3, 4, not much route choice. A little push up the hill to 5 and we were into the nice stuff. Struggled to keep my knowledge of the control codes up to speed with my running as it was all so quick. Got some nice margins on a few people on 6 planning quickly.
Kept it fast and clean through 7 and 8, a bit shocked by the high well just before 8. Lost some time on 9 - not sure how - but a few seconds lost anyway (getting tired?). Bit confused at 10, planning for 11. Changed my mind last second and ran back on myself - saved me a fair bit of time too, but it wasn't obvious at the time.
Nice Sasha-sized gap through the wall on 12 but awful route choice to 13. Stuck with it to avoid wasting more time by getting upset and hesitating, but it wasn't going get me those seconds back. Slowed down, looking at the splits, on the next few, also a bit distracted by dad. Anyone else see the mistake on the map - crossable 7 foot high fence if you straightline it to 16 (Oleg? ;) ) Didn't want to risk it so went round.
Took 4 seconds out of Murray on 18 - achievement of the day. Just really ran for it as I had planned for it earlier. Wasn't bothered by route choice on 19 as I don't think it was very costly, so carried on straight through 18. Last few easy ones in the park and finished, absolutely knackered, even though the pace wasn't great.
Reasonably happy with it, Would have been around 30s down on John if he had gone to 16. Over 2 minutes down on Murray (thankfully, he said he was going for it), but it's obvious that it's all down to running speed, so I know my nav is good as it is. Nice margins on the other 18s. Beat Rosco by a second so the Chasing Sprint was bound to be fun!
http://grampoc.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/06-04-1...
http://www.gramp.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-bin/reitti.... - realise why I lost time at 15 - bad route choice. Had the good route choice in mind (through the underpass) but must've been distracted by Rhona exiting the other way.