Orienteering - race 59:00 [3] 5.8 mi (10:10 / mi)
6 day - day 3 Birsemore
Birsemore is one of my favourite areas. One of my top 5. Sadly the course didn't get to the best bits. I lost 3 mins taking the lower route to number 2 (map says rough open, but this was very much an understatement. I have never seen tussocks like it! Just impenetrable. Why do we have 5 shades of forest and only 2 shades of yellow for open???).
Then 8 was a big miss (9:38 off the quickest split!), milling around with lots of other people looking too far down the slope. Some aggression took me to within 40 secs of the lead, but a 3rd place meant that the effort was for nothing due to the scoring system used.
Why didn't we get to the best bits of the best area of the week (the rocky slope)? Apparently it is cause we are twinned with the M60s and those old codgers couldn't handle it. Shame. This is why running W40 can be crap. W21 next time?
Having said that, Birsemore is a glorious area, and running anywhere in it is fun.