http://www.lamm.co.uk/2017/results/Day2/multistage...http://www.lamm.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#31&cour...Good travel to the event; paid for a Kia Picanto and got a Mercedes GLC 220 Sport.
#winning2nd MM of the season; high expectations of a good result after looking at the start list and seeing only a few sets of orienteers we thought might beat us (the Hardings and Iain Embrey+Jon Marsden) we hoped for a top 3.
Good weather at the start and a reasonable forecast. Midges annoying but not overly so. Bussed to a separate B/C course start to the very East of the area. I did vaguely try and persuade Tom to move up to A (mainly because the competition looked less fierce) but he wasn't keen, so B it was. I was secretly happy with this.
Probably contoured a bit too early to 1. I have discovered I have a tendency to want to contour first and then gradually climb to the right height; others seem to climb to the right height first perpendicularly and then contour afterwards. I think this means they go less distance, but do the climb more steeply. Thoughts on which is best?
Anyway we lost time right from the start finding the 'island' because there were far more streams than mapped so we thought we were on the island when we weren't. But not a major mistake (or anything we could've done anything about). The OS map was not as good as Harveys.
2,3,4 all good. We could see other teams in front and behind us, but we were taking our own lines.
5 was a major down-up-down or around leg. Around would avoid just over 300m climb but looked significantly further... I judged it too far and went for the former. The planner's "suggested" route
was around, but I didn't speak to anyone who did it.
Anyhow - the top part of the climb was very steep and turned into scrambling up a gully right at the top - not quite climbing but definitely needed both hands to pull yourself up on every step, because the footholds weren't good enough to support your weight. I made it to the top and was watching Tom ascend to within about 10m of me... when suddenly the rock he was holding onto gave way and he was sliding back down the gully towards a particularly steep section... I could do nothing but watch as he finally managed to stop himself only a few meters away from a serious drop, after sliding at least 30m. He'd managed to get himself onto his back so his bag took most of the damage. I shouted to ensure he was okay; and got the response... "yes... but get out your first aid kit..."
One of his arms was covered in blood and it was difficult to tell the extent of the injury. I tried to clean it with an antiseptic wipe and apply an adhesive dressing (note - they are rubbish; they don't stick when everything is covered in blood) so we gave up on that and wrapped it in a bandage which we safety-pinned on. And we were good to go. If a little shaken. Split analysis reveals that we only lost about 13 mins here, but it felt like far more.
Finding the control was pretty trivial after that.
Then we had a long contouring leg where I messed up the nav at the end and did an extra 200m climb. It had got a bit misty/rainy at this point and I just wanted the leg to be over; I was trying to do some more climb and minimise the distance, but I thought we were further around the hill than we were. I thought the altimeter was wrong because the weather was changing...turns out it was just me. Relocated well using a nice round hill in the distance but we lost another 13 mins here. Straightforward to the end.
I made Tom go and see the first aid guys after he commented "oh look, my hand has swelled up a bit", and presented one hand nearly twice as big as the other one.
Luckily the cuts weren't as big as we thought and didn't need stitches or anything. Could have been so much worse!
Finished the day in 6th place; without the nav and the first aid issues we'd have been about 3rd equal, or a solid 4th with only one issue. So we were a bit upset but hopeful we could catch the 8 mins to 5th in the chasing start.
A bit of heavy rain in the evening but didn't last for very long. Overall an enjoyable day! Not one we'll forget in a hurry.