Orienteering 1:23:37 [4] 4.7 mi (17:47 / mi) +225m 15:29 / mi
S6D Day 2, Strathfarrar, 59th
On paper an improvement, but all down to having a late start and following some tracks, mainly in the 2nd half.
Route gadget very useful here, otherwise would have only a vague idea of where/why I'd gone wrong.
Lost time to #1, correctly spotted knoll but went too high and up one re-entrant too soon. Understandable
#2 - #6 remarkable spot on on trace, inc a 20th split to #5 but I can't claim much credit there were people to follow and tracks and although I was trying to keep up with where I was I wasn't wholly on top of this, only roughly.
#7 - didn't drop far enough, think Jack C caught me here for the first time, to be fair was hard to identify features in this area
#8 - lost at least 5 mins, ran a bit hard to get away from Jack, tried to match hills with contours on map, thought I'd done this and spotted rocks in distance where control was in distance and ran there. Alarm bells should have rang when no-one else was about. Was well short. Tried to match tree mapping to what I could see but that didn't really work. Carried on and ventured too high, just off the map (would have been useful to have more map, and less logos and silly swirls), 2 other folks looking here, but basically realised everyone else was heading down a bit, and though this didn't seem right to me, there it was.
Then we got into following the tracks 9/10/11, would have managed 9 easy enough, 10 perhaps with a little problem, but 11 really was a huge benefit and no way through those ferns with nothing to guide me.
Saw Jack ahead again approaching 12, having passed me while I faffed at 8, and I managed to punch before him, then ruined it by taking at silly route over river and down to road instead of just down to road, and unbeknown to me Jack came past again.
13/14 fine
Over to 15, on my own here and first 2/3rds of leg I was doing well, could see Jack in distance again, was convinced he was going wrong by going left and so I was about 250m back and kept straight trying not to lose height, then I saw him punch so had to change track. I was higher than I thought it was.
Caught him as we faffed round 17, being slightly west, but I got to 18 first, ran off and missed 19, when I hit fence line so Jack came past again. Then we legged it in via 20 and 21, so he gained the minute on me he started behind me.
Enjoyed the end bit, better area than yesterday mainly because the second half was better than the first. Though if I'd had an early start may think differently.