Orienteering race (Fritham Plain) 1:16:03 [4] *** 10.5 km (7:15 / km) +175m 6:41 / km
spiked:20/23c
Only got to do this because the YBT final was cancelled after a flake of snow fell on a motorway somewhere, but it was miles better than sharing a minibus with pottymouthed teenage girls anyway. There was still a bit of snow around, and on north facing slopes the ground was rock hard ice. Some of the muddy bits were frozen, but most of them were the usual horrible clag. Was a bit careless to 2 because the forest was pretty open, but relocated on a huge knoll. Strayed southwards en route to 5 but tried to keep an eye on the map. Started to go straight (down and up) to 6, then spotted the track run to the north. 8 was a delightful run through short heather, trying to match the contours to the ground, and I went round to 9 rather than cross the valley. Leg 10 was over a kilometre and a half, with no obvious path route, so I just set the compass and headed off on the steady downhill to the stream, and could see the flag climbing the slope on the far side. Didn't do the 1.5k leg to 14 as well, as I left the path too early and came out in the rough open then faffed about over the best route in. But I was moving well and things were coming up and I hoped I wouldn't blow it. Then I did! Left 16 smoothly and picked up the north-west downhill path, but it was the wrong one. A gate and stream came up as expected, but I started looking for the control in another bit of forest and it just felt wrong. Took about four minutes to realise. The last six short legs were fine and I thought I'd done well, but result was a bit disappointing. Forest was very fast and four minute mistakes were going to be costly. Superb event, though. Had all the things that make orienteering such a pleasure.
