Orienteering race (Southern Champs) 1:17:20 [4] *** 9.8 km (7:53 / km) +240m 7:02 / km
spiked:16/20c
Star Posts North. In spite of the crap weather, and worries about my back, I really enjoyed this. I had no ambitions, other than to do myself justice, so I'm not sure how I ended up with one of my best results ever, 7th I think. And I had the winning time when I downloaded! That's never happened before. Certainly not at a major event. Key, I think, was getting the first three tricky controls cleanly. I caught quite a few people and got a massive boost in confidence. Then I sensibly stuck to the safe track/path routes for the long legs and was running well. En route to 10 I realised I was following this guy in a black top, and that he was good and could be relied on. I gradually caught and passed him and it was CH! He was a little bit of 'insurance' in the very tricky rhododendron thickets, where there were bumblers milling round everywhere. His route choices were straighter than mine but we still finished almost together. Could have done without the deep marshes near the end, but the air was full of wet anyway. First championship badge-standard time. And I wasn't even trying.