British Middles at Bradenham. 6.1km M21E.
Start ok but began to unravel in the circle of 2. Thought I'd matched the big depressions ok, but then just didn't find the control. Spent a while trying to match anything within sight to what was on the map. Eventually stumbled on control 142 on an area of flat ground surrounded by flat ground, near to some bushes. From map saw only candidate was a small depression north of my pit - and bearing in from there seemed to work. (2.5 mins)
More time loss at 5 - didn't get map to fit and ended up at ride beyond and had to go back in (1 min). Hesitant on 7 (30s). Map funny at 9 - much more runnable than shown, but found control ok thanks to others. Map just nothing like reality at 10 as found pits to south much sooner than should have - so had to resort to pathing in and then hoping second attempt would be better (1 min).
11 - overshot - 20s. Saw earth bank as contour as roughly in line with looping contour in OOB. Might have helped if circle was broken to show the brown dot on the line at bottom - but equally not convinced by quality of map printing.
16 - light green veg much harder to pass through than would be expected from earlier part of course. Thrown far off line and going hard. Ended up at control I thought was right but turns out it was pit at bottom of "1" on the overprint for 14 - well off course. 1 min.
Caught by tree on way to 17 and ripped by elbow wound open again. Not too much blood but meant it was hurting from here on in.
20 - found control on other clearing of same earthbank first. 21 - seemed very vague. Found control on pit to SW of 21 first, but took a long time, and odd direction, to find control. 1 min.
23-24, was going to head north back via 22 but other people I was running with went west so went with them. Poor choice. In the end cut the last bit to get there just ahead but could have saved 90s by doing my own thing.
26 - didn't get the map here. Relocated from fence to W. 30s. 27 - not really sure where I was at all but stuck to bearing, couldn't match anything until the barely-a-lump contour hillock appeared. 28 - stopped a little too early. In a long queue up to the tree in the field and hard going to overtake. Managed a gap on the run in so at least was able to open up for the finish.
9:30 of mistakes - so maybe could have managed 46:15? Implies that lots of people had scrappy runs too as lots slower than that who I wouldn't expect to beat.
Well planned course, but today continues my run of terrible results in these middle races. Just didn't get on well with today's map at all, and having to be careful with spring vegetation growth, trip and ankle hazards. Think my terrain confidence is quite low after last week.
Still good to get out. Biggest disappointment of all was how much I seemed to be struggling to run today.
https://www.strava.com/activities/301853357