NOL Ultra long, Pugulists Hill, a map which has always caused me trouble in the past!
The format was mass start with three loops (about 6, 7, 5km) with some splitting. I knew I was very poorly prepared physically and aimed to just go steady at whatever pace I could and focus on keeping concentration on clean navigation till the end.
Started well, Tash and then Belinda caught me halfway through the first loop and I couldn't keep up with them for long and then made a 1min error just at the end of the first loop.
Ran the second loop completely alone and already slower than the first loop, but pretty clean.
Really started to struggle physically on the third loop, legs were extremely stiff and heavy and I lost quite a bit of time on the open running sections. Rachel caught me but then made an error, and a few hundred meters from the finish I glimpsed Anna coming behind me which jolted me into a faster finish.
On the whole I was pretty happy, despite being 11 minutes behind Belinda and 8 behind Tash, because my navigation and concentration was good the whole way and I stayed positive despite the physical struggle!
I mainly used contours and most things came up as I anticipated. Finally mastered this map ;)
http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/d...