Orienteering race (Scottish 6 Days) 55:25 [4] ***** 5.7 km (9:43 / km) +270m 7:52 / km
spiked:8/11c (injured) shoes: £20 Lightweight Running Shoes
Day 5 - Camerory. My best day, although only because I found it hard and everyone else found it even harder. This was a new map and I was expecting it to be similar to the lovely Anagach nearby. In the event it couldn't have been more different. The planner got the contour interval wrong, so our supposed 135m climb was actually 270m. The course alternated between steep, boulder-strewn hillside, and tricky open moor with exhausting heather. You quickly learnt to run in the young and burnt heather, and save your strength in the knee-high stuff. I pushed quite hard as, although I was going slow, I realised that everyone else on the course would be suffering the same! I loved the huge (1.2km) long leg to No. 6, it was bleak and lonely and required confidence to run the direct route. The course also had an intriguing end, the penultimate leg being a tricky 700m. Many people, including me, normally switch off for the final legs, but this one required concentration and planning ahead. My major mistake was, yet again (like Days 2 and 4) a really silly one at the first. I shot out of the start in completely the wrong direction. My first control was actually a sharp left, but as everyone else on the (other) courses had been going straight on and right, I held my map upside down and went needlessly across a boggy, nasty moor, before coming to the awful realisation and swinging back. Finished 17th and got my highest number of points today.
