Flying Pig: Long
Ooh, this one hurt. Physically and mentally.
I wish I had thought more carefully about running a long hilly course the day before two sprints. I should I signed up for the brown course, instead of green. But I decided to soldier through. My goal was to keep moving, even if it was a slow pace.
I did a decent job of navigating through the first 7 controls. Maybe should have a taken a slightly different route or two, but no real errors. Except 5, which I don't count as my error. It was mapped as a depression in the white woods, on the edge of some green. It was actually smack in the middle of the green and quite hidden. A total bingo control that I only found (on the third pass) because other folks were nearby.
I was with a man and a woman as we approached 7. I checked my code and then looked at my map to plan my next leg. Straight down the hill, along the stream, towards 9. I got a bit cocky here, and said, ooh, I'm going to punch and leave this control without stopping, jog straight down the hill. I didn't realize, until I downloaded, that I had just moved my thumb from 7 to 8.
Got to the area of "9" and nothing made sense. Wandered a bit and finally decided I had to go back to the big stream, Found the trail and relocated. Was shocked that I was so far away from 9 but still didn't figure it out.
After 9, I forced myself to go straight up the big hill to 10. I was really tired and hot by now, and still had a long way to go. But now my goal was to be under 2 hours. Up the hill to 11, GlenT passed me and said: "last hill". Ha! Still plenty more hills and even small rises felt like hell now. Even the two steps up to download were uncomfortable.
And then I found out I had skipped 8. Needless to say, I was really pissed at myself. This was a new one for me, I had never made this particular mistake before (mistaking which control I was leaving). I was also pissed that I had just spent two long physical hours in the woods for no reason. As I said, this one hurt.