Orienteering race 1:11:57 [4] 10.0 km (7:12 / km)
shoes: VJ Falcon
British Champs - Brown Clee - 9.2Km 280m
Quite a bit tougher than previous courses at Brown Clee as there was very little path running and the terrain was heavier than normal. Course was tricky with plenry in the vague area at the start and lots of very missable pits.
Technically fairly scrappy though it would have been difficult to be really clean.
15s lost 3-4 through going too far right.
30s lost on 6.
Hesitant on 7.
Very slow 7-8. Should have stuck with original plan to go low.
15s lost on 9 - too low.
Wimpy route 14-15 cost a few seconds.
1 min lost 16-17. Firstly fell over badly and got covered in mud. Then spent most of the leg trying to get the important hits of the map clean (not easy when all clothing extremely muddy). Then wasn't concentrating and left the path at the wrong point. Lucky to find the control. Struggled with muddy map for the rest of the course - gave up on trying to read fine detail.
Caught in fallen trees 19-20, but I guess everyone else was too.
45s on 24. Slightly too far left and was expecting it to be easy to find, but ditches covered by fallen trees.
15s on 29. Too far left. Maybe the map rather than me.
Physically it felt like a struggle from the start. Felt really slow, though probably just the terrain and lack of terrain running practice. Was able to ease off slightly for the last loop when I knew I had a lead. Caught JonX 8 mins at 4, which was a surprise, and put me under some pressure I didn't want that early!
Rather surprised by the result as it certainly didn't feel like a winning run. But I guess I avoided major disasters which was always likely to be a key factor.