Linear orienteering race 43:49 [5] *** 10.41 km (4:13 / km)
spiked:21/28c shoes: Mizuno Wave Musha 4
St Albans City Race 2013
No major errors but a number of sub-optimal route choices and a fair bit of hestitation / general scrappiness meant I wasn't too surprised to see in the final results that I'd dropped from 1st to 4th.
Control 1 caught me out as I rushed in the first leg before I'd attuned to the scale and level of detail; maybe lost 10-20 seconds here and then a few more with a slight hesitation early in my route to 2. Almost lost focus and was consequentially hesitant around 6 and 7.
I was broadly happy with my routes to the next few controls, although lost a few seconds in the closing stages to leg 12 a couple of people sat on the bench were obscuring it (not quite standing in the way of control). Slightly hesitant out of 12 and possibly could have pushed it more to 13 and for the next 4. With 18, the day's longest leg, I'd be inclined to say that I was reasonably happy with my route choice (back up to the Cathedral and then a near straight as I could) although I recognise I could have run faster had I turned left at the road beyond the Cathedral and then right along the main road. The route most people I spoke to took - along the southern edge of the cathedral park - didn't occur to me, partly because I didn't see the path continuing east from this (in retrospect its obvious). Don't think this would've been much quicker though. Generally happy with my routes from here on, although 26 could've been much neater.