Western Cape Middle Distance Champs. M21A.
New map, Highlands East, 1:10'000. Pretty well mapped, although there were 2 or 3 control features that were slightly suspect in their location.
Had a strong start on the race, hitting all the controls well at speed. Left the road too early when attacking #4. Exact siting of #s 5,6,7 is suspect, but I didn't loose any time. I did some good reading ahead on the way to #10, which gave me a good clean run around the technical loop, probably the deciding factor for me winning the course. Only mistake was #16, where I tried to contour in instead of attacking the control straight. Got held up horribly by some green undergrowth on the way out of #21, but otherwise clean until the penultimate #27. That control is nowhere near where it is supposed to be on the map (control location was at the eastern most tip of my loop on the GPS track). Lucklily, I only lost about 45 secs.
Had a good split to the last control thereafter and a blitz sprint finish which gave me the win by 8 secs over Michael. Jeremy 3rd.
Overall a very good run for me. I went flat out the whole way, with very few mistakes. Scary to see that everyone is running so fast as well. I don't think any of us would have broken 40 mins a year ago.