Well done to Zoe for finishing the Brown course in a decent time and being the first lady. On the Blue, Sarah managed to keep the mistakes down and was the first Junior - about 20 min behind Ian. Salome was nursing an injury apparently and still won the Green. Well done.
Here is the the Blue Course from the weekend. Ian won it and drew in his route. There are also some comments about his decisions and mistakes.
0-1 Started a bit hesitantly. I knew area was complex and didn’t want to mess up first control. Headed NE over the spur into the valley. Up valley and crossed over to other side and ran parallel to ditch until I hit the wall. Turned right along wall to control.
1-2 Followed wall until past thickets. Aimed off across re-entrant and saw boulders ahead. No problems.
2-3 Out on to track. Followed this round until clearing with large trees. Aimed off towards control. No problems.
3-4 Back to track. Ran hard down to bend. Aimed off to knoll. No problems.
4-5 Back to track. Followed round to gap in vegetation. Headed off down the hill and Straight into control.
5-6 Decided to go back to track the way I came in. Along to track bend. Contoured around re-entrant and along far side until fell into niche.
6-7 Down re-entrant and across valley to main track and past start. Able to run pretty hard along track. [Some people saw # 14 but I wasn’t looking on that side of the track !] Cut off to SE and over spur to join path. Along path past rocky outcrop on right. Turned left towards thicket and fell over # 8 !! Checked code and realised that I had misread map. However, once I realised my mistake, I went round thicket to south between thickets and up to clearing without problems. Not a bad route choice in the end but direct route would have saved time if I had been able to navigate properly. [lost 2 min]
7-8 Back the same way so didn’t have to think much. Went slightly too far but no real problem.
8-9 Out to path. Along until on north side of spur. Around up re-entrant and then up slope to control. No problem.
9-10 Out to track. Along and then through open area by ruin. Down slope and came across control much earlier than expected ?
10-11 Back to track and straight across. Headed NW until I hit other track. Along track until junction just past power line crossing. Aimed up hill between thickets and fell straight on to control.
11-12 Exited due west hitting path. Along path until I saw large knoll. Ran up re-entrant north of knoll, across end of wall and straight into control.
12-13 Headed SE down slope. Through area of trees (white) under power line but came too far south and saw fence. Realised I had overshot and contoured back to boulders. [lost 1 min]
13-14 Headed out of control NE down slope. Intended to run between large knoll and spur directly towards control (through semi-open area) However, after crossing track, I ran to the south side of knoll (also through semi-open area). Ended up (I think) on rocky knoll far to far south. Everthing seemed to fit but no control ! Eventually decided to go out on to track and run north, possibly up to junction. However, luckily I saw control from path and relieved to correct my biggest mistake [lost 3 min].
14-15 NW to track junction. Alog track, around bend and then head up slop just after thicket on right. Up re-entrant (not that obvious) and straight on to knoll and control.
15-16 Out to track. Follow track around bend and down hill. Saw thicket on right. Headed down slope and somewhat luckily went straight into control.
16-17 Out to track. Down to bend. Headed north from track bend. Between spur/knoll on left and thickets on right. Across top of small spur. Over larger spur and straight into boulder.
17-18 Headed NE into re-entrant and down hill. Hard down hill until hit ditch. Found path and along looking for wall on right. Not very obvious so overran to path/wall/rocks junction. Back along wall and up to crag. No sign of control – had to get within 1m before I saw it. Very relieved to find it.
18-19 Back to path. Along path, around bend. Boulder was very obvious from path. Control on far side.
19-20 Headed SW knowing that last control was very obvious by track.
Generally a great run with a few minor problems. Probably lost 7-8 minutes in total – perfect run would have been 50-51 minutes. Not having a compass (I left it at home by mistake !!) probably helped as I was forced to read the map. The map is generally excellent the biggest problems being the vegetation which I found iffy in places and the interpretation of rack features.
Salome lead the girls at St Johns and Brad had a strong result on the men's course.
