Orienteering race 1:53:41 [4] 14.3 km (7:57 / km) +420m 6:56 / km
shoes: Adidas Swoop 2
BOC Classic Race
gotta be pretty happy with this race to be honest. had that feeling of orienteering rustiness again as soon as i picked up the map, so had to really focus right out of the start triangle.
like craney, my control description holder was broken so i had to run relay style - kind of annoying but not a huge hindrance. mainly a pain when heading into the control circle.
Took safe, controlled routes into the first couple of controls, hit them clean if a little carefully, but was really surprised to see my 3 minute man Tim on the way out of the 2nd control. I passed him pretty quickly, and this gave me a huge boost of confidence to push on.
Greno went well - control 4 was very tricky and i held it together well, i ran a bit off line to number 6, saw the little shits who most likely vandalised the control. a real shame that happened.
my race stayed strong through until 24, once we dropped over the scarp it got really tough going underfoot and fatigue started to kick in - i made a series of small mistakes, the biggest probably being about a minute but they definitely accumulated. i haven't got my map back yet and have yet to look at routegadget, but i reckon it might have added up to around 6 minutes in total.
23rd at the end of the day - if i can find 14-15 minutes then i'm right in there in a pack of strong runners. I had no real problems with the distance today, i think its just a case of improving my strength in terrain and doing more orienteering to improve my flow.
whether this is going to happen is hard to predict; with the move back to london i'm really intent on keeping my training going, but making this training orienteering specific might be tough given the demands of my career and my location.
with 12 months of training and competing under my belt though, i've got to be satisfied with my race on saturday.
finally - really enjoyed the terrain and the course; a world class forest; tough, technical and relentless, with every skill coming into play at different times. i felt like i had to hold my concentration at all times, and was continually punished near the end when i got sloppy. while the winning time was faster than oli hoped for, i'm pretty happy that i didn't have to be out there for another 20 mins!!