Training Log Archive: Mark3

Totally undeserved win. More or less faultless, one route choice which I got wrong maybe 20s, but otherwise great. Except for one control near the start... Tried to use the position of a church to decide which junction to take, but it turned out there were two churches within like 50m of each other. The one I'd seen on the map was surrounded by trees and the one I could see on the ground wasn't, hence why I didn't spot both at the time. This resulted in a 3 minute mistake which is pretty hilarious on routegadget.

Luckily ran the rest of the course quickly doubtless helped because it was hilly and not everyone is a hardcore fell runner like me.

With Joe and Andy B, starting from Honister.

Very wet. And claggy.

Surprisingly hard nav given I didn't flag the nav as an issue during the 2019 race. But I think I was further back in the pack three years ago and had more people around me? Also conditions were grim today.

Went standard grassy line down from Dale Head. Really must try the due E and then NE halfway down before swinging back to just N of the tarn choice. A bit iffy on the brackeny descent but made it work. Need to swing back left to go through a gate otherwise have to climb two adjacent gates.

Missed the road to the finish but didn't bother going back around! Then the route after the start is really long and has more single track than I remember. It's worth smashing the first bit, and then the road section later on, to avoid getting held up.

Went to the left of a big rock on the Bessy Boot climb where we should've got straight and after that the route was pretty pants and we did a load of extra distance and climb. My nav was not on form today. Can just remember that after getting across to the passable re-entrant at the start of the ascent, it's basically a straight line from there to the summit.

Can descend due S from summit to tarn. From there the trod was fairly followable for a bit. At the point where it leaves the wall, could've left the trod a bit earlier to avoid some climb. But little hope of finding that place in the race.

At some point around here we saw a couple of people (a surprise in itself) who asked if we had just come from Scafell Pike. Who knows wtf they thought they were, but I replied we were going TO Scafell Pike and it was like 5k away. They said they'd follow us and kept up for about 30s. I suspect they never made it.

Lost the trod at some point and ended up lower than it, but not 100% certain it exists at this point. Eventually rejoined again somewhere near Pinnacle Bield I think. Then hit High House Tarn for some confidence. At this point should've stayed on the path for a bit, but went parallel after crossing for a bit, which was slow, before not contouring around Allen enough and starting to drop down to Sprinkling before realising and having to climb again. I was not popular! But it was claggy, honest. So we totally missed Esk shelter (can't remember where the CP is anyway).

Back en route at the Hause but once we got past Broad Crag I made the #smj that the scree descent from Scafell Pike in the driving rain and fog probably wasnt the best idea, and so we just dropped into the Corridor Route from the col. Happy with that choice!

The Corridor Route was largely a river. Nice grassy option to the left right at the start, and can maintain all the way to the T junction. Then a bit more again to the left straight after, but have to come back to path at Greta Gill to cross, and then pretty much have to stay on the path from that point for a while, ensuring to stay right where the path forks just after where it crosses Lambfoot Dub stream.

After one more awkward bit round to the right, can leave the path and go parallel, to Slew Gill, before having to climb a bit up to the stretcher box. This section was tough in the conditions. Stopped at the box to put a warm baselayer on.

Even got a bit lost on the climb up Gable and did a nice circle. Then came off far too far S and got stuck in all the rocks before hitting the BG line. Basically terrible nav again - need more NE from summit before turning E.

Contoured Green Gable nicely but then too far right and in the rocks, I can't see much reason to not just take the BG line here. Joined it this time a bit later to go L of the big rocky section and then took BG trod up Brandreth which isn't required but is at least well defined and runnable in the clag. Can't remember anything about the alternative lower line.

After crossing the stile, started off on a good line to Honister but ironically confused by the sight of... Honister. Tried to get closer to it and somehow ended up crossing the BG line and ending up too far right?! Once you can see the tramway on the left we should've gone diagonal at that point. Note to self: if you're crossing the massive linear springy marsh, you're going too far E. The BG trod is just to the W of it.

Great day, though very glad it ended when it did. Bit of a baptism of fire for Andy; longest time out and most climb and worth weather all in one day.

Star of the day were my and Joe's VJs, XTRMs and iRocks respectively, which both performed admirably on the wet rock, definitely the best shoe I've had for those conditions. Actually had confidence! Looking forward to the race next weekend now and hoping for more of the same.

Few efforts on the hills. Humid but not crazy warm.

With Em. Given yesterday we abandoned the plan of Ambleside Sports and the Rydal Round unfortunately, and went for a stroll around Kinder instead.

It was a nice day and we de-stressed ourselves. Then we went to Dino golf after having driven past it countless times on the motorway - and after 36 holes I was the clear victor.

2nd.

This race meant a lot to Emma; she organises it as a memorial race to her previous partner who was killed in a motorcycle accident. Due to Covid cancellations this is only the second time it's happened.
Other that one thing (below) it went very smoothly. She'd told me I wasn't allowed to win as she thought that might be awkward, so I duly came second. It's a good route actually, up Shutlingsloe from the car park at the bottom (moved up from about 6th place into 3rd by the slabs before the gully and then up to the trig), then steeply down the grass/mud/rocks before immediately ascending again to the trig from a different direction.
Thoughout all that I was gaining on 2nd all the time and caught him on the slabs on the way back, then put in my second fastest mile (5 mins ish) on the downhill to get a 30s gap by the end. At least 90s behind a flying (again) Allen in 1st. Team prize secured with 1,2,6 just edging out Chorlton in 3,4,9. Good and plentiful cake, and Terry's favourite pudding (sticky toffee) as prizes.

So all would have gone to plan except... Terry's dad went into cardiac arrest about 10 metres from the finish and had to be CPR'd and defibrillated back to life, and is currently in hospital in a medically induced coma. This was exactly as stressful for everyone else as it sounds. What are the chances of that happening during your own son's memorial race?!

So a pretty late night.

Planning on racing Weds and Thurs so just a walk today.

Last time I predicted 36:00 and ran 32:00... This time Emma and I ran together; she predicted 36:00 and thought I had too, but I'd actually predicted 34:00 to hedge our bets.

So obvs I was subtlety trying to speed her up.

This failed, and we were 35:28 - good enough for her to be 3rd and me to be 6th, so we both got chocolate :)

Nice evening, bit warm/humid, finished just before the rain started.

Pretty straightforward but still messed up a couple. One wrong side of an uncrossable which probably won't be material in a long urban, but then one terrible route choice where I thought I was being clever and making the decision really early, but actually I'd missed a gap in another uncrossable, and even if I hadn't, my route choice involved an extra loop I didn't see. Pretty annoyed about this; probably lost 2mins.

Otherwise good. Nice to do some o again. But Italy it was not.

EDITS
Carrock - looks like I was too low too early, the people not getting stuck in the bracken were on a slightly higher line. Not much though! Harry Bolten went diagonal straight from summit but most people went to the col first.
Blencathra - none of the leaders (on flybys) take the straighter line. The one way back in the field that does beats the person he's with at the time, though. Leaders all take line Allen took off Blencathra.
from Skiddaw: Looks really marginal whether via Gt. Calva is a good idea; Fraser and Gavin start together and Gavin comes out a few seconds up via Calva, but not material.
------------------

I haven't seen clag that thick for a long time! Tough race. English champs counter so standard very high; 38th. One place behind Allen!

Terrible headache on the way there; too much chilli the couple of days before I think (chilli seems to accumulate in my body if I eat too much in short a time period, and give me migraines. This sounds bonkers but I have done experiments on myself and it does seem to hold true) but after half an hour or so of the race I'd forgotten about it.

Start on the road didn't feel fast but there was no way I was risking being anywhere near the leaders today and so took it pretty easy. Stayed with the 3rd woman more or less all the way to Carrock. Then the first half of my descent line was fine but the bottom bit was abysmal, lost the trod and got stuck in the head-high bracken. Then because I was in a bit of a group, suddenly the way we'd come was more prominent than the trod and so plenty of people came and joined us thrashing about. I took my own line to try and join up the least ridiculous places and emerged eventually but I think I lost 3 minutes here.

Unfortunately this meant there was noone ahead at the bottom other than the spectators at the bridge. I'd planned to cross the river here but noone else was doing it, which made me worry I wasn't in the right place. And at the back of my mind was the memory of the race instructions which said you could only cross at certain points, and I hadn't marked the rest of them on my map... So I had to follow the pack along the Cumbria Way.

I think this is a worse route choice since it looks to be a mile further with similar ascent, but I think most people did it.

LiaD line up Mungrisdale where I literally ran the whole way up Blencathra, which I'm very proud about. Less proud that I was caught by a group of 4 halfway up including L3, who then beat me to the summit. But I definitely took time out of Allen on the climb; if not for the bracken I'd have been ahead by now...the top was in the clag but I saw him just coming down.

I took too-high line across the screes rather than under them, and also went all the way back to the trod on the spur. Allen used a contouring trod much lower which joined the SW trod at the cairn; that was a better line. One for next time.

Fairly slow on the descents today, body feeling a bit fragile, but ascending well and caught and passed about 6 up Sale How. Finally caught Allen on the shoulder of Skiddaw and together to the top, where we were a few metres apart and yet couldn't see each other; at one point he stopped and waited for me to confirm he hadn't missed the summit. Post CP though he disappeared down the BG line to Great Calva; I caught a glimpse on Hare Crag and then eventually recaught at the Cumbria Way crossing. I got a gap on the Calva climb and hoped I'd get away in the tricky (in the clag) nav round to Knott - but unforts he was caught by some people who knew where they were going!

I'm not sure about the (shorter) Birkett route; it's more ascent and rougher. Needs some Strava analysis which I haven't done yet.

Dubious corner cut after Knott which I think was N of the mapped trod and pretty rough, but compass confidence made it okay and was glad to meet the Cumbria Way. Once there, straightforward for High Pike where Allen caught me on the flattish bit at Hare Stones.

Tempted a bit by the Eastern spur (West Fell, obvs) but held my nerve and took a beautifully straight bearing down through the old mineshafts perfectly to the gate, then through the last field (RoW on map; nothing on ground) to the road. Now Allen didn't need me anymore and so he disappeared down the road to finish a minute ahead.

Just not feeling it on the descents today but felt good on the climbs and pleased with my nav in the conditions. If not for the bracken it would have been a great race for me I think. Position-wise didn't change much; 34th without the bracken I reckon. Good day out.

Carrock: 40:23
Blencathra: 1:00:21
Skiddaw House: 23:59
Skiddaw: 32:30
Knott: 49:16
High Pike 20:26
Finish: 21:28

C • Bracken 2

4th - 2 mins faster than 2019 so I'm very happy. The downhill at the start didn't seem anywhere near as steep as 2019 (good shoe choice this year I think) and the climb whilst steep didn't go on for very long.
Only just behind Matt from Matlock and well ahead of red t-shirt Jerome. Overtook two teenagers through the woods who'd started much too fast.
But the top two were 3 mins ahead of Matt and me - can't compete with that.
Nice to be running in a normal temperature, although still warm enough to walk vestless back to the car.

The club had a load of people travel up for this last year which I missed and there was a carload keen for this year, so I thought despite the massive drive at least fuel costs would be divided by 4.

Actually a really fun race. Drizzle on the way up but fine and warm in Langdale (normal temp rather than the 40 yday; more like half that). Started pretty quick but soon apparent that the standard was very high. Allen disappeared into the distance along with loads of other people. Overtook 4ish on the climb who'd burned out. With Antonia Fan (think that's her name), who was first woman, for most of the climb. She was a few secs ahead at the trig but then wasn't sure where to go, and I passed her on the Three Shires line which I know pretty well.

Probably need to investigate going L of the big boulder near the top again rather than R; Allen and the speedy group he was following went that way which uses a parallel trod. But tbh happy with my route which has exactly zero steep rocky sections.

Got a bit worried lower down that I'd stayed on the trod for too long and veered left across some springy moss which was probably only marginally slower, and rejoined the path. Strava tells me I could have stayed on it for quite a lot longer, until the big re-entrant crossing where I dropped my map on either Three Shires or Langdale one time, and so potentially could've avoided more rocky path than I did. So gotta do it next year now!

Once on the path it's not too bad because can run at the sides on the steep grass rather than the rocks for some of it. I wish I'd worn more aggressive shoes as some of it was pretty boggy and contoury. Some larger corner cuts possible lower down, crossing the stream later, and followed someone down the main one. Overtaken by about 4 on the technical downhill which was a bit depressing.

Felt pretty good though and pleased with the time. 3 mins behind Allen though! Impressive. I think the winning time was about 38. I was maybe 15th ish.

Edit - 18th. Still happy :)

Dislike these shoes but they seemed the best choice for short distance hard ground non-race off-road...

Hottest day in the UK ever, which they may have covered on the news momentarily.
Tbh it was unpleasantly warm, but I'm not sure I notice the difference between 28 and 38, they're both grim.
Felt okay other than super dry mouth after about 30s. Took it very easy.

Decided anything more than a walk in the temperature was probably (h)ott. Got my 10k steps in, then did a load of admin.

Excited that my parents have bought a new build in Kendal, but less excited that since it's not actually built yet, they won't be moving until April.

Bit disappointed to only be 3 mins faster than 2017 as I think I've improved quite a lot in five years!

...but actually, it was ludicrously warm today (30ish), winner was only 12 mins ahead, and I was less than 3mins behind Victoria Wilkinson and ahead of Paul Tierney. So I'll take it.

https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/Kentmere/2022...

Ill Bell 40:49
High Street 1:03:27
Kentmere 1:29:14

Fast start along the road/track, just behind Andy B, and then passed him just before the brackeny gully steepened. Very hot and sweaty until halfway up the gully where we got a bit of a breeze for some respite from the beating sun. Remainder of the climb didn't feel too bad and was overtaking all the way to the top of Ill Bell. But immediately passed by 4ish on the descent - it looks like way over to the W from the summit avoids some rocks, but I didn't consider that choice. On the long drag up to High Street though, had retaken everyone and was feeling pretty good.

Was very glad I'd taken 500ml of water as I easily drank all of it, just sipping constantly really. Also ate a pack and a half of veloforte chews, which I'm still not a fan of.

Contoured round Mardale Ill Bell and had a good line (following an Ambleside vest and some other guy) down to the ridge; I was most definitely following rather than navigating. We contoured around something near Black John Hole that I defo went up and over last time. After Kentmere the top part was okay but lower down, after crossing the first wall, there are a massive number of choices and in the end I just took a straight line route to roughly where it looked like the other guys were going to end up, and it paid off. From Strava I stayed on the W side of the wall for longer and crossed second time at Withered Howe whereas I crossed higher with a straighter line last time. Hard to say which is better with no memory of before.

Brackeny and hot again down to Hallow Bank. From the map it looked like turning right at any decision points following the wall crossing would generally work, and that was the case. Well flagged from there to the finish. Felt pretty bad about overtaking the guys I'd been following and who'd beaten me on the actual fell running bit, and I'd only got past on the road. So I said sorry at the end.

Em was quite emotional at the end after making it round without turning back, as she doesn't like the heat, especially after Welsh 1000s last year where she had to drop out with heatstroke. Can't blame her, so I was pleased she got round today.

Excellent weekend away.

Unusual situation. Started as Jake's BG. Jake had been a consistent 10mins down for ages so but had lost a few more by the last message we got before Wasdale signal blackspot and was 18mins down. But 18 mins after scheduled ETA there was no sign and we were getting a bit worried; an hour after we were getting very worried. But then we saw a guy come down who said he'd seen them and they were struggling but not waiting for MR or anything, so that was a good sign.
But then Joe, Allen and Rob gradually arrived 10 mins or so apart with worse and worse news, culminating in Jake dropping out due to a historical groin injury. But Joe had been running from L1 and felt good, so it suddenly became Joe's BG and we had a bit of time to make up!

And we smashed both legs, from being 1:20 (at least) behind the 20 hour schedule to when we set off, to only 25mins down by the end. Joe defo capable of a quick time when he has a 'proper' go.

Great running conditions. Bit warm. Tom, Allen and I were support at the start and then Tom dropped off when we met water-girl Em for support at Black Sail. Took the opportunity to have another go at the Looking Stead line and this is the closest I've come to finding it; turned right just after a slight rise (which looks like the right place) but then I went too steeply and contouring too soon; correct line is gradual steepness but continuing for longer. Will nail it next time!

Other than that no problems. Even enjoyed the Great Gable ascent. At Honister there was a music festival which was pretty cool, so we had that as background for ages, and then we passed (yep, overtook!) Fiona Pascall on her (record breaking) 68-peak 24-hour round.

Only got 500ml water at Honister which was an error as I'd run out by the road. Allen was wrecked (which I loved; sorry) and missed Hindscarth. I failed to find any of the nice High Snab lines but still we got down from Robinson in great time. By the road at the bottom, where we left Allen to walk in, Joe was starting to feel it, but we still kept up a pretty good pace. Very happy to get him to the end in 20:25, but those last two legs must've been 18 hour pace I reckon (my last two legs were 7:17 and Joe did them in 6:23, nearly an hour faster).

Awesome day.

Low volume week but very successful on the race side. More reasonably sized weekend coming up :)

4th again! 2 days in a row. Stopped watch a bit late, but defo over 90s faster than 2018 and 2 mins faster than 2019...they've removed the singletrack on the way up so it is a bit faster but it was only a couple of hundred metres at most, and the distance is identical so not too much in it.
Started about 10th and gradually caught people on the climb until 7th by the downhill before the Shuts climb, then passed Mark Walker at the bottom for 6th, then one more guy on the steep grass post summit and a final one on the bit just before the bench. Then was terrified of being caught by the road runners on the gravelly downhill so put in my fastest ever mile (4:49) and stayed ahead. Not too far off 3rd; 20s? Really pleased with this.

Allen destroyed everyone and won by about a minute.

Probably my best ever short fell race result, 4th;
https://www.bamfordvillage.co.uk/results/2022-carn...

Perhaps having a low volume week has paid off. Nice course near the top and a good piece of technical descent, but quite a bit of tarmac nearer the bottom (on the out and the back). Well marked and marshalled.

Beat a guy called Jerome who always wears the same red t-shirt and who's beaten me about the last 5 races. So that was really good. Not too far behind 3rd, could see him throughout.

On the ludicrously quick descent (Strava tells me I got my 2-mile PB) there was a fairly wide stone squeeze stile which I misjudged and bashed my hip on. It still hurts the next morning when I move in pretty much any way, so hoping I haven't done anything proper to it.

C • Hip 2

Strong performance. Kind of wish I'd done it on a forest day at WMOC!

Stressful travel day; up at 4am then 3.5 hour drive, cash-only toll booth for which I only had enough money by 50 cents, then flight delayed by 1.5 hours plus another 1.5 hours waiting for bags in Manchester. Travel is rubbish at the moment. Stay at home, people.

At least the UK feels like a reasonable temperature in comparison, though. Warm weather training acclimatization paid off.

Top of spur rather than bottom of crag on 11 and then stuck in brambles at 18, wrong hillock on 19 (annoying since same mistake last time I was here) although the ponds are dryish so hard to identify what's a pond and what's a depression, trying to overtake someone on 20 and so not navigating precisely and went wrong side of a pond. So 4 misses of the 30, all measured in seconds: good run.
Not seen results yet but would be disappointed not to win that.

Allen got round the Blue unscathed which is pretty good for a first event. Em fell in a bog but had a good time, so everyone happy I think.

12th! M35 in the world. Very happy. Obvious caveats aside about there still being quite a few M35s still running elite classes and so not being here, I think this is a good result.

Not a clean run, though. Good start and then a bit of a wobble on the first long leg where I was running way faster than I thought, and so missed the junction I was going for, relocated with no time lost but then went to the wrong building corner, no more than a few secs but it made me rush the decision to #4 and I took a route which was both more complicated and longer! That's probably a more significant loss. Couple of technical controls I smashed and then one I did fast but went down the wrong steps and so my route was poor.
The next one though is the main one I'm annoyed with myself, trivial control easily visible to my right down a wide alleyway which I sailed part looking to my left; my mind was a junction ahead of my body and then I momentarily faffed in the wrong alleyway for a bit before realising. Frustrating to do well at the hard stuff and then mess up the one control you could've found in the UK.

Didn't let it get to me though and did the next 10 controls pretty much perfectly, which is why my result is so good overall I think. Nearly mis-waved on the final control; no beep when I held the SI to my ear meant the loopback of shame and so lost time on this split and the run-in.

Looking at the results I was only 3s off 11th (damn the mis-wave!), 24s behind 9th, 42s behind 6th. So with a totally perfect run...maybe next year in Slovakia.

https://eventor.orienteering.org/Events/ResultList...

Had been pretty nervous for this and also felt dreadful before the start, I struggle with 32 degrees at the best of times and running in it 4 times yesterday wasn't great (physical) prep. So had pretty bad headache and nausea before starting. However luckily once I'd started concerning on the nav, I was able to forget about it.

Fairy straightforward first few controls. I stuck with the plan of taking the simplest routes and avoiding steps where possible, so sometimes my choices were a little bit longer than the optimum but I'm happy with them as I think it minimised the chance of mistakes.

Happy all the way to 12 and then on 13 a massive gate, mapped as closed (and so wall) with olive behind was open...the gate was so big I didn't even see the gate, just a gap I wasn't expecting, and so I ended up in there with loads of other people...
(Apparently later they put some tape across here, but I went to look afterwards and the tape isn't even in the right place, so not sure that would've helped much).
There was a set of steps covered in brambles under some trees which I ignored as probably not being right (turns out it was right) but I made the decision to just ignore that area entirely as something weird was going on and go a different way.

I reckon I lost 45s here which was frustrating but didn't impact my position that much.

Next two controls I made small mistakes too and I'm going to blame the map for both of them (although they get more and more tenuous). The first I was looking for a gap with no steps and the gap in the right place had steps so I ignored it - turns out it was the right gap and they hadn't mapped the steps for whatever reason; clarity maybe. Anyway I overshot and had to turn back. Maybe 20s.
The last one was just after the arena run-through, where it was unclear (to me) on the map where the taped run through route ended and where the nav began. So I didn't really know where I was for a while and ran past a control I was relatively sure wasn't mine, noting the number, and then had to turn back when I saw that it actually was! Lesson there is just to punch everything.

After that, clean through the complicated bit. Not the best route choice every time, but minimised mistakes. Happy.

Qualified 17th of 51 and so comfortably into the A Final, which was the goal, obvs. Looking at the times, a minute faster would've meant 10th, so naturally 10th is the stretch target for tomorrow. Although I will be very happy with top 17. To be honest I'm pretty happy with top 26.

Great area and course.

Awesome area. 1:4k, which I why I chose to do this one first as the others are 1:3k which is the race scale.

Needed the magnifier at this scale but doesn't work using it for the whole leg, and even removing it to macro-plan and then using it doesn't really work when the area is so complicated, because it's too easy to forget the plan!

Got to stay in contact the whole time and take the simplest route possible even it's longer, since simple routes are the only chance to plan future legs to any extent at all. Also map reading on steps is impossible and this area was 95% steps.

As for Monte Sant'Angelo, but made harder since I think the locals had got annoyed and moved half the controls.

Better at 1:3k, basically magnifier not needed most of the time, just use for the detail.

Main mistake was dead-ended by only thinking of thick black lines, and stymied by narrow piece of olive.

As for Vico Del Gargano.

Some flights of steps go up-down rather than down the whole way (or whatever) so mental picture needs to allow for this.

Particularly non-representative model event, particularly since the gate I reached after 20s was locked...
Dull basically, nothing like the three training events, and nothing like I think it's going to be like the next two days!

Tough getting out a fourth time, and pretty warm. Just jogging by this stage.

Canal and MW way. Not a lot of motivation for this and normally wouldn't have bothered, but probably not running tomorrow and volume this weekend is going to be pretty low.

Felt good while running though actually, although very humid which is weird since it rained quite a bit earlier.

Was just going to be a jog but they always turn a bit progressive as I warm up. No ill effects from the speed of yesterday's race.

6th. 1:20 faster than last year, when it's not like I was unhappy with the way I was running, so really pleased! PRs on every segment.

Of the 7.7k, 3k was at 3:34 pace which is faster than my 5k pace; slowest k 4:13, and this was a race with 6 stiles, gates, cows, single track, etc. Started fast and held on. MaccH first team with 4,6,7th. Ladies won too so a good evening for us. Good running temperature.

Actually overtook someone on the road this year, another in the cow section and a final Rob Whitby on the 'hill' in the woods. Could see Mark W in 4th pretty much the whole way around.

Not sure where the performance came from as I'd been jogging around for a warm up thinking I was feeling so ill I might not bother running. But totally fine in the race. Weird.

Control descs at 6:45am enabling us to plan in advance. This was probably a bad thing as there were three route choice legs and I got all of them wrong.

Well #1 was marginal; we went up and over Yewbarrow, contouring around the top. The contour lost us a bit of time since we were a bit too far around and went past the col and had to drop. We still won the leg by a minute but we were probably moving faster than the other teams. Around and steep up was the best route. Still, good actual nav but bad call.

Next leg we were 6 mins down on the best time - the key again was to be straight is great and I'd chosen to contour around to give ourselves less descent/ascent and also milder both. But the extra distance was just too much. Again though, nav in the clag was great and we hit the control perfectly.

Last bad decision: 4 mins lost for exactly the same reason; went a longer route to give less and milder gradient and it proved to be too far. Definitely a lesson for the future. We were a (relatively) strong team on the climbs and we should have taken them on rather than trying to avoid them.

Strong on the last few controls, which were straightforward.

Won the day despite the errors...by one second! So still 49 mins up overall. The result today shows though that it's not like we had no competition at all - we just had an awesomely consistent day yesterday.

Allen did well on his first MM although obvs he never touched a map the whole time. But we did discuss the choices and he did point out things I'd missed a few times (generally trods, which he's magnetically attracted to).

A great weekend, and worth the several hours wait for the prizegiving to get photographed on a hay bale and get a bit of Honister slate. Looking forward to the next MM now - I've missed them I think. I think I just enjoyed it more since I've done so much lakes and long distance running over the last few years that they're not as physically demanding anymore, so I can spend more time nailing the nav rather than being tired.

https://www.slmm.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#20&cou...
https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/SLMM/2022/SLM...
https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/SLMM/2022/SLM...

Kirkfell (2nd longest course) with Allen. We'd wanted to do Scafell (longest) but the rules have changed at some point (maybe when they renamed it from Bowfell to Scafell?) and now both people in the team have to have experience, rather than just one.

Secretly pleased about this because it meant victory was a genuine possibility.

Elected not to stay in the Lakes the night before, so 3:45am alarm. Smooth journey and registration. Weather good - a few showers whilst putting shoes on etc but dry at the start so started without coats. As standard just marked on control 1 and then the rest gradually as we went S-1-2. First controls very straightfoward; Allen struggled a bit with the long grass tussock terrain but I was in my element. Won first two legs.

L3 I decided to drop down to the stream and it turned out to be a brackeny slope - a straighter route would've meant a bit more ascent near the start but a bracken free slope; not sure how we could have know that from the map, but it seems straight is great. Still only 30s down on a 15 min leg tho. Gained a massive 7 mins on the next best time (25 min leg) by good contour interpretation. We had three technical controls in Eskdale which was great. Gained another minute on the next one which was glorious orienteering terrain and such good fun. Another couple of minutes on 6 too despite crossing the same river multiple times which was just above jumping distance.

Lost a minute on 7 where the bearing was bang on but I was just a bit tentative. Then massive leg to 8 over Ore gap or a col to the left I chose the less rocky route up to Ore gap; should have stayed straighter at the start but the macro choice was good, clag was down at the top of the col but trusted the compass and came out in exactly the right place. Lovely grassy drop down next to the path. Then another minute lost on 9 where the route was good but I'd missed the grey (rather than brown) single contour on the map indicating a rocky slope and meaning we couldn't contour at the level I wanted and had to ascend a bit. I was a bit annoyed at the time as this was the first miss I was really away of. But very minor. Up on 10 (Seathwaite small tarn where I've been before a few times) despite trying to contour around the Seathwaite hill rather than running the 1-contour ridge route which is much nicer anyway.

Then fun leg where we took 5 mins from everyone; steep climb up then contoured around to the reverse Joss Naylor line. Such an advantage to have been there before as I was really confident with the route despite being up in the clag again. The presence of some people looming out of the cloud on the hilltop helped us into the control too. Excellent leg.

Slight wobble on 11, again trying to contour something that would have been easier/faster just to go up and over, but a ruined wall saved us and the double boulder was easy to find since we were out of the cloud.

12 was a proper mistake but we only seem to have lost 90s, which is bizarre. Contoured way too far, basically because lost concentration, and only saved by the presence of a wall (again) which prompted me that we should've been climbing ages ago. This meant we had to go up the scree scope that the BG comes down into Wasdale, which was a terrible choice and I'm sure Allen was cursing me. But he didn't get the map out of his bag the whole time so...
Lovely route into the control though. Then somehow we gained another 5 mins just to the second to last control (basically the finish) by taking a shorter straighter route rather than going round the path.

Finished the day 49 mins up and very happy.
https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/SLMM/2022/SLM...
https://www.slmm.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#18&rou...

Very sociable campsite, great atmosphere and good weather. Got a bit chilly in the evening, despite wearing all of my clothes. But overnight was warm in just a (heavily vented) sleeping bag. Slept terribly, but Allen slept well.

New Pegasus much more similar to the 36 (good thing) but still with the big padded tongue (bad thing), so the 36 is still my favourite. These are less spongy than the 37 and 38 though which is good.

Started as a jog really but feeling good. Looking forward to the weekend.