Orienteering (Foot) 2:19:50 [3] **** 5.5 km (25:25 / km) +239m 20:53 / km
spiked:14/17c (injured)
Scottish 6 Days: Day 5: Glen Affric. This was not a good showing for me. I'd been warned by an official before going out that it was brutal out there and the first control was tvery true to that. I followed the pack on elephant trails till just before the cliffs,'and when I attacked, I went left of the rest of those I started with. My control description was a 5m cliff. I assumed it to be the bottom of the cliff but my inspection didn't turn up the control. I went back up and down several times nearby since movement along the stream was mostly not possible--there were some fallen trees and a waterfall. At one point I saw the control but a re-reading of the control description led me to think the control was above the cliff. The description actually didn't indicate top or bottom. The second control was the first to indicate which direction the control would be relative to the feature and it said 'top of', so I went to the top. Each trip up and down was dangerous being very steep, eroded, and muddy. After finally finding the control, I was too tired to even notice the cliff and check the height but the gorge was more than one contour rep.
Subsequent controls were better both in my navigation, and in the physical conditioning needed to get to them. However, I was just slow moving through the terrain. Most of the ground was wet or hard for me to run on. Tufts of grass, mud, and sharp/stiff needled evergreens were on route. I nailed #2, pulled up short a bit for #3 before hitting it and move through pines to #4. I nailed #5 in an area where others seemed to be getting confused. I planned to take it safe going to #6 by going high and using a ride. It was slow getting there and moving on it. Where I left the ride there was thick undermapped deadfall. I got around it and haphazardly set across a slow felled area to a stand of forest. While in the stand of trees I saw all the orienteers well below me in another stand of trees and there were no elephant trails. I got to the other end of the trees and decided to drop down to another stand. There I realized that I had been in the right trees. If just missed the control earlier as the boulder was covered in vegetation on all sides. I found #7 with ought much delay but the placement confused me greatly. It seemed to be on ground slopping the wrong way, and the depression feature was hardly mappable with other similar small dips between pines. I went around the right side of marshes going to and spiking #8--I helped a girl relocate,who asked for help. I pulled up short on #9 in a sort of parallel error only the area I stopped at initially was not mapped the same--there were similar vegetation boundaries and even mor distinct contours were I stopped. I spiked #10 and moved better with it being downhill mostly, and there being trails to use. I took trails on the left to spike and get ahead of others going to #11. The rest was just a mad dash for high I was in no condition to dash for. 2 hours into the course, I'd wondered if I was going to have a legal finish inside 3 hours because I was moving so slowly and having so much difficulty with the controls. I was thirsty and tired upon finishing.
We tried to go to Urquart Castle along Loch Ness after the event but missed the last entry by 5 minutes. Getting to our cabin from there took us toward Inverness so we got hung up in traffic again. All in all it was another disappointing day.