British 'Long Distance' Champs, Arncliffe and Kilnsey North.
M55L(?) 7.3km, 310m.
There must be a story behind the short courses but I haven't heard a convincing one yet. I was on Enquiries from 0830 to 1030 which meant a 0630 alarm. Not ideal preparation for a 1330 start.
I set off early to the start and had a walk/jog around the warm up map. Despite my best efforts it never really felt like the British Champs. I set off hard (as it was obviously a short course) and had JonX for company for the first 8 controls (M50 and M55 were a bit like a gaffled relay). We both made mistakes in this section but nothing major. Then we had the dead running section to #9. A downhill leg of over a km which was taking well under 5 mins for the speedy guys. My Achilles didn't like this and started to get sore, further distracting me from the task in hand. I missed at #11 (control sneakily tucked behind a tiny spur) and struggled to keep running on the fell race section #11 to #13. I then fell into the obvious trap of running from #13 to #16, realising quickly but then losing further time locating #14. OK after that but the damage was done.
Knew I hadn't run fast enough for a decent result and not surprised to be well beaten by Tim and some better runners.
5th place, just over 3 mins down on Tim.
Relegated myself to the 3rd team tomorrow so that I can jog rather than stress my Achilles further.
RG:
https://www.boc.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#38&course=1...