Orienteering race (Mill Bank and Whitley) 57:58 [4] *** 6.4 km (9:03 / km) +210m 7:47 / km
spiked:13/21c
I think I'd rather have had a break today and done something else, but the weather was so good it seemed worth the long drive. On the way I decided to do the blue course as the race with Lu would give us both the incentive to push a bit harder. As it was, I made a series of pretty stupid mistakes again which I can only put down to trying to outrun my brain. I stopped too early to 2, distracted by a couple of lost people I should have completely ignored (90 secs). I saw a flag near where I thought 4 would be but checked the code, luckily, and was a good 100 metres short. Felt heavy-legged on the climbs to 5, 6 and 7, and lost time at 5 because I thought I was at 6! Saw the good route through the field to 10 but lost 2 mins at 12 because I didn't use compass on a compass leg and instead relied on visual identification of veg boundaries. Was OK for next 6 controls and reckoned 19 could be make or break as it had scope for major time loss, but spiked it and caught Lu here (four minutes). Followed her out of control but took slightly differerent slightly worse route to 20, so followed her again on optimum route to 21. She was running strongly and I was falling back, then I decided she had forgotten to punch 21 and it was through the trees to my left. I left the ride in expectation of a flag but it wasn't there and nor was the veg boundary. I reached the path below and ran up and down it a bit, panicking wildly that all the time I'd made up was being lost, but failing to relocate. Finally saw another runner punching a flag in a vague location and reached the finish having lost 3 mins 40 secs on the leg so was just one place ahead of Lu. Another disappointing run but good area, v. good course and quite outstanding weather.