Old Windmill Hills, Surrey
Course 5 - M40L
5.6Km, 100m climb, 24 controls
Start @ 12:15
Woke up, day was predicted to be a scorcher (25-28 C), so slapped on plenty of sun-cream. Headed over to the venue (short drive), and got the tent etc set up. Our start was pretty late, so plenty of time to watch the early runners go and come back, and grab some photos at the run-in. Anne-Marie decided to do an entry-on-the-day course, so she had time to go out, do that, and be finished before we started.
Headed up to the start, got the kids sorted and then got into my own start box. Sun was beating down at this stage, so I hoped I'd hydrated enough. Clock beeped, started my watch, and we're off. 100m run to the start kite, so plenty of time to look at the first legs. Headed off to the right into the forest immediately after the kite, planning a straight route to number 1. Drifted a bit to the left down a spur, but was aware of it, and corrected at the bottom. Lots of people milling about at this point, so had to keep focused on my own run and ignore the other controls (there were lots). Headed up early to number 2, so that i could follow the shape of spur around to get it easily. Down the spur and onto a track heading towards 3. I was a little bit off here, hadn't really got to grips with the green on the map yet, but saw another runner heading into the control, so no major time lost. Easy leg to 4, just follow the path to the big bunker thing. followed the fence around to the road on the way to 5, then stayed to the right on the high ground. Straight to number 6. At this point, its super hot, and I haven't paced myself very well, so I'm feeling rough.
Took a router around to the right of the steep hill towards 7, trying to avoid climb, and swap scrappy twiggy undergrowth for paths. Just followed the stream to 8, boggy area here, but my feet were super hot, so glad to get some cooling. I was also pretty sure I had a blister at this point, due to sweat/heat over the first section. 9 had the first proper choice of routes, due to crossing points on the canal. I chose to go right (east) to the road bridge, as it looked shorter (to me) and had an easier approach to the control. I still haven't measured it, but I don't think there's much in it.
Went around the spur to 10, and similar approach to 11. Steep climb out of 11 towards 12, really feeling gassed now. The spur that 12 was on was quite steep, so we had to drop down, just to climb back up again. Shuffled towards 13, stuck to paths because my brain was melting. Same for 14, but I was starting to get second wind at that stage. Contoured around and down to 15. Made a bit of a mistake to 16 - followed the path around OK, branched off to the left of the hill fine, but got disoriented and started veering to the left a lot. Noticed my mistake when I could see the open area at the top of the spur ahead of me, and corrected myself - my map had been folded badly, and I hadn't noticed this until it was ahead of me. Grabbed 16, then path for speed towards 17. Lots of pits on the top of the spur, so I joined a gang of 5-6 people looking for the kite. I saw it pretty quickly, and we had a train going.
The next few controls were fine - I was tired, but I was being careful, not wanting to make a mistake so close to home. It was all fine until the train I was in collectively made a mistake to 22 - no-one to blame but myself, tired and tuned out, arrived at the corner of the arena field, much head scratching ensued. the area around 22 turned out to be confusing anyways - mapped as rough open, but in reality there were quite a few trees in it, so it kinda looked like (very) open forest. Grabbed it, straight to 23, and gunned it to 24 and home on the run-in.
Overall, it was an OK run - I made a few small mistakes, but nothing massive - lost maybe 4-5 mins overall. My main issue was that I started too fast for the distance (I ran 7Km by the end), and the heat just killed me when the climbs got tough. Still finished mid-table, so happy enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment