British Nights Cademan & Thringstone
Main thing I was worried about beforehand was getting eating right - always difficult with a 7pm start and an anticipated 90min run. Had a chicken and bacon pasta around 4pm which seemed to work - few minor grumbles but no major issues.
Had the first start which was quite cool - running off into an empty forest. Didn't get carried away and picked up the path to #1 and bounced off the river to #2. Then had the fastest split to #3 (!) Kept going in that vein - using paths where possible and checking compass / big features to ensure I was heading in the right general direction. This meant I corrected quickly when I did stray onto the wrong path (e.g. en-route to #6 [15] and #9 [20]). Went straight-ish towards the end of the leg on #10 which lost me a little [15] then again had to backtrack after missing a junction to #11 [15]
#12 Took the southern path but missed a couple of turns en-route and ended up hacking through a little. Then the path was very muddy and slow. To compound matters I also had difficulty crossing the fence [60] First real loss that felt significant and looking behind me at the map change.
#13 Bit of faff finding where I was again then in order to avoid muddy path chose southern route but got on the eastern path in error [30]
#17 At the time thought GG came past here, but turns out it was an earlier part of the course crossing over, so actually hadn't been caught.
#19 Bit of path hesitation as it didn't make sense initially [15]
#23 Ended up on road, oops [15]
#27 Lost path briefly (assuming train of runners going to boulder in open to west were actually on the path), but then found it again [15]
#30 Overshot path briefly (distracted by some runners having a loud conversation about M21L?) [15]
#31 Seemed to be more paths than shown. Used contours to locate flag [20]
#35 Brief attempt to cross into OOB field as no longer navigating [10]
Keeping it relatively clean was obviously the way to go - helped by some big errors / injuries from / by the better runners slotted into 4th place! (Just don't mention how far down on GG) ;)
http://www.leioc.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/index.php#1...