Watergrasshill
Cold day so wore gloves, and definitely didn't regret it, got the layers right as I didn't get too cold or overheat. 1st control was grand, and then fought through some green to get towards 2. Went around the light green going to 3, ran up to it but didn't like the look of it so took the ride out. Nice attackpoint when I found a control on the road going to 3. Then into the forest going to 4 it was very dark and thick, bit greener than the map said, but I reckon I did start in the dark green when I left the track.
Direction leaving 4 was slightly off but corrected it ok. Met Liam O'Brien looking for 5, he was wondering if the control wasn't there but I told him it was on further, I was proved correct. Went through the open to get to 6, start of it was rough, but then better running after that. Forest after leaving the track was also a bit thick. The control for 6 was interesting, black x on the map, found out it was a tractor tyre standing up in the forest. Ger found it discarded nearby so made it into a control site.
7 and 8 were ok. I decided to come back out to the road for 9, met my dad randomly in the middle of the light green. Again used the road to get to 10 rather than look for the small path through the dark green. First part of the leg to 11 was ok, then the trees thickened, lowering visibility and questioned my location. Think a safer route to the road would have been faster but only saw it later. 12 was the long leg, just track running. Some snow along the track! 13 was in the quarry so I took a safe route to that, small bit of hesitation towards the end but got it ok.
Took the right route to 14, small track running rather than back the muddy track I came in. I was happy with my AP into 15, used the end of a clearing before leaving the road. Ended up too rar north of 15 but not much time lost. Long run-in, 640m according to the descriptions in a straight line. Went via the lovely bit of open forest, starting off using the same route I took to 11 but in the opposite direction.
Results
Splitsbrowser
Small margin of victory! Happy to have a straight line on Splitsbrowser but I definitely didn't have the cleanest of races, just cleaner than everyone else. Time loss was due to slow running rather than mistakes.
Straight line route was 7.5km so I ran a good deal more than that, there were no legs where you could have run straight if you wanted to come home in one piece.