Orienteering race 59:15 [4] 6.41 mi (9:15 / mi) +250m 8:15 / mi
Scottish Orienteering Score Championships - Pitmedden Forest, Fife
First go at a score orienteering event (as apposed to a MM score or easy CATI score). Thought it would be quite tough to think out a strategy from the start and it was! Roughly speaking though, I'd thought beforehand it may be best to try and use running speed to reach the far away big points asap! Initially decided to head up the right side of the map, though mucked up straight away by overshooting the turn off for 110 so 10 points lost as wasn't worth back-tracking for it. Went for 119 and 117, then started heading for 124 though realised the left-side of the map had far more/bigger points so switched strategy and headed for 127 instead and generally the left-side of the map instead which I think proved to be a good decision. Things started clicking into place and reached 143 at the top of the map in 34mins (200 points in the bag). Big blow though at the next control #131 (very vague spur), came off the path round the slope and GPS showed I missed it very narrowly to the left (it was the other side of a tree!) so lost a couple of minutes hunting back and forth beyond it before relocating and finding it. Time was really tight now but stuck to going via 120, 123 & 124 to finish. Had just over 9mins to get back from 124 so ran hard down the track and luckily made it with 45secs to spare, with a minor diversion to 114 near the finish. Not a perfect run by a long shot but not a bad attempt. Should have got 110 at the start, could have been cleaner from 117 to 127 had I decided on that strategy earlier. And valuable time was wasted on 131. With extra minutes, there were few more 10 pointers near the finish. And I think the out and back to the 40 point control (142) at the bottom of the map may have been more time efficient than the loop to 143 but never spotted that until after the finish!
Result - 300 points, 1st M40, 3rd on 60min behind Dave Weir (320 points) & Ben S (310 points).