orienteering 1:19:32 [5] 10.8 km (7:22 / km) +250m 6:36 / km
JK day 3, St Leonard's Forest and Holmbush.
I didn't enjoy this much, never really getting to grips with the map and frustrated by the inconsistent runnability.
I made a mistake on #1, going over the top of the correct re-entrant and into the next one another 80 metres NW. There was a control there which I punched, then headed off to #2. After 80m I passed the correct control in the correct re-entrant and only realised because I recognised the code I should have been looking for. Oops. So I punched and carried on with maybe 1:20 lost and a very lucky escape.
I was reasonably quick through the next few controls, took the leftward path route to #6 which I have a reasonable split on, but then kept dropping time on #7 through to #10. #7 I misread the ditch up the re-entrant as a veg boundary and drifted way off to the right towards the green when all I had to do was follow the ditch, 1 minute lost. On #9 I intended to go north up the road until I was level with the light green then drop down towards the control, but I left the road far too early and got the worst of the vegetation and stuck in some brambly bits. Another minute, maybe. And on #10 I dropped down to the big track and came back up because I was losing trust in the runnability on the map and on my own ability to go in the right direction. I found the control alright but the route was maybe 30 secs slower.
After that everything was fine - I didn't really lose any time through the rhododendrons and my route on the long leg was ok. I did have to have two goes at finding a route through the dark green after #18 which cost another 20 seconds or so. Approaching the final control I was in a pack of 3 and we all hit the straw bale fence crossing at about the same time, just as an old man with a walking stick climbed on top of it and took up the whole width. I tried to go around him but the straw gave way and I stumbled and possibly impeded the people behind me (sorry) but at least I didn't take out the old man with the stick. I was dropped on the run-in anyway - I might just as well have waved everyone in front of me and given a hand to the man with the stick.
Overall, poor run from me, poor area, poor map but not as bad as it might have been. So much depended on running speed on the paths and tracks and I haven't got any.
11th place, 12 minutes behind James and about 4 minutes behind the people I should be able to compete with. Overall 11th place, the overall results correlating pretty much with the long race results.