TVOC Bradenham event.
Pretty nice area really - the South of England is not so bad. A dense path network but with lots of green sections breaking up the runnable forest, and lots of point features to navigate to.
Got moving pretty quickly, pretty early. I was probably rushing a little, and I don't think I was perfecting the processes, but I was mostly hitting controls alright and hence getting away with it. My general navigation was good, and I did get through the whole first section pretty cleanly, despite my haste. I probably settled a bit more, but I had a couple of small mistakes on #10 (~10sec), #11 (~15-20sec), and #12 (20-30sec). Probably a part of me felt there was a need to push the pace a little bit more instead of settling down a little. I did clean it up a little over the next section, but an aggressive entry into #16 and imperfect execution possibly cost another ~15sec.
Fine on the next few, trying to run hard on the track and be fluid on the short legs, and mostly succeeding. I planned the map exchange a bit unnecessarily as there was a timed-out crossing before it, but not a big deal.
Left the timed-out crossing, got #22 fine, the route to #23 was decent I think, but I didn't take my time enough leaving the track to take a bearing and probably cost myself the guts of 30sec with the mistake. Again, my hastiness and desire to push the pace may have been heightened by the fact that I was struggling to past an ~M50 on the track that it looked like I should be passing with ease, silly to let that influence me - the forest is where I do my best work.
Clean enough aside from minor lines I'd say on the next section #24 - #30, and then I got to plan the final few controls on the second road crossing so tried to attack them to an extent, but I was feeling a little tired.
The result was quite positive really, beat some names I wouldn't really have expected to, and wasn't too far behind Will Gardner (~4'40), particularly considering I did make mistakes out there and there is room for improvement undoubtedly.
Technically, the race felt like it went mostly alright, but I'm not convinced I was doing everything the way I should be doing. Part of that could be the nature of a control-pick style course and feeling rushed. The 1:7500 map as well didn't make taking bearings easy with all the folding, but I think I should be prioritising the compass more as it didn't feel completely habitual.
Physically, it felt probably quite good early on, but the legs felt a bit heavy and like I was wavering a bit in the 2nd half, especially on legs which allowed for lots of running. Still, I think I can take positives from not feeling at my very best the whole way through to the end and delivering a decent result.
ResultsRoute