Back home at SMOC, crazy how much I have improved since my last SMOC event:
https://www.smoc.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#29&cou...http://www.smoc.info/Results/2019/Salcey/1_brown_c...1: Didn't get my compass out my pocket before I started, so had to do this on the way to 1, potentially slowing me, but overall good routechoice, maybe could have continued on my initial line across, but no major problems.
2: Safe route choice well executed, could have taken a greater risk, but this was probably a sloid route choice
3: Again, safe, but pretty quick, finding the ditch and control easily
4: Nearly took the wrong path at the footbridge, but didn't and this was another good control
5: Didn't quite stick to y plan out to the path but found it easily, should have followed the ditches up rather than across, but was pretty horrible to run through, so not too bad
6: Should have hit the ditch, then the path, but ended up at the road and followed this to the control
7: Got to the timed out crossing well, slower than some others though with these two controls, maybe some poor route choice through the forest, with a slight mistake thinking 7 was 8 an running back along the path, but ended up being fine. Doing really well at this stage, running in 4th place behind 3 very good orienteers. Feeling good ducking through the forest which had a ridiculous amount of low branches, which made quick running hard, but not impossible. Was averaging around 5:45km's at this point
8: Looked left, right and then left again and navigated the timed out crossing with ease
9: executed plan perfectly and really quick
10: Massive problems, lost four-5 minutes here, because the OOB area on the map doesn't have a fence protecting it as I thought it would, so ran blindly through the OOB area, looking for the catching feature that would have taken me straight to ten. Didn't check the map closely enough, butttt, loads of other people made this mistake. My Dad, David Cavero, Andrew Stemp, etc... So not really bothered from a personal perspective
11: Not direct, but found the control easily, running with someone else
12: Could have headed to the path earlier, but at this point ignoring the drainage ditches as they were mesmerising to map read of at speed
13: Good plan, well executed, pretty quick
14: Should have been more precise and followed the ditch along so lost 30 seconds here, but running well still and used the tower as a good catching feature to help me here
15: 1st on this leg, found the ditch I wanted and pegged it down to the road crossing, knowing i would have a rest of up to two minutes ahead of me
16: Again, very safe across the road, even helping out an Aussie sounding guy to the registration for the event
17: Not a direct route choice, but legs were feeling good, so was a quick choice and a good split here actually
18: A major mistake here I went the wrong wat to the main path and should have headed south and along, but was distracted by a family with dogs and was going to go this way anyway maybe, not realising the path would be terrible and was very slow running, costing me a few minutes, but then got to 18 ok once on the main track
19: Sloppy mapreading here and just ran blindly in the rough direction, not slow, but not quick either. Running 6th at this point.
20: Completely screwed up this control, running blindly into the path, then finding 127, not 121 and thinking there was an error and nearly punched it, but realised I was wrong, so headed back to the path, missed again and then proceeded to horribly twist my ankle. I nearly quit at this stage, but hobbled to the control (which I had now worked out a solid route choice to) and then limped to the finish.
21: As above
Actually really happy with the run, as reducing losses from 10 which was not fully my mistake and 20, which was, but should have been very easy, I would have finished around 15 minutes quicker and would most likely have beaten Duncan Birtwistle who is ranked 39 in the UK. I know it clearly wasn't his best day, but mine wasn't perfect negating those controls either. Kept up a good speed throughout and did a decent time considering all. My nav was a bit wavy so I ran 2km more than Will Gardner (the best ranked in the UK), though I know how I can easily reduce this from me. My running was excellent and when Andrew Stemp retired (33rd in BUCS) I was a few minutes ahead, suggesting that I would have challenged his time on another day. All in all very encouraging in a pretty nasty runnable forest and totally different from the contour heavy events I have been doing recently, so very happy with my progress. Major drawback is my ankle, which took 3 months to heal last time, but hopefully it is not as bad and I can still do well at the JK, though unlikely to run before then. May have to do shorter green courses and walk, if my ankle is not up to it!