Off to the woods just outside of Schongau for the middle competition, and while everyone seemed to enjoy the sprint yesterday, we didn't have an opportunity to get out on a forest map and get a feel for the 1:10000 scale or the vegetation features prior to this race. We talked about some techniques and how to capitalize on the running speed of the new guys while minimizing the chances of catastrophic navigational errors, but unfortunately there's no substitute for experience, and the team had a rough day today. The vegetation was (in my opinion) much thicker than mapped, and the trails were really vague, which made for some tough route choices, especially for the pure runners. Right off the start, I didn't see the trail/road option to #1, and tried to go straight through the marsh/thick vegetation. I probably lost about 4-5 minutes there. It seems a lot of the women did that, though. Learned my lesson quickly, and opted for the road route to #2 and 3. The rest of the course was pretty good, although I had a little trouble on #8. Ended up too high and overshot the control by about 20m, looking around on the wrong "edge of a thicket on an overgrown spur". Eventually found the control, but it was hung really low and sort of hidden in the edge of the thicket. Had a hesitation on #11, as I worked up the nerve to hurtle myself over the side of the cliff, but then a German and a Latvian came by and didn't end up killing themselves, so I put on my big girl pants and plunged the 35m down the hillside. I was able to come to a stop, all limbs intact, less than a meter from the control, so I give myself bonus points for style and execution. No problems on the rest of the course, and overall my focus was good today, and (except for #1) my route choices were solid.
http://cism-orientierungslauf.de/GMOC/Maps/BCupBah...