Another Sunday and another Regional event ! This time run by Guildford Orienteers over at Woolbeding Common, near Midhurst, the area we ran on for the British Champs in 2006.

 This time, we parked in the grounds of the old hospital, towards the southern end of the map and started and finished close to Assembly. It was a lovely, albeit very cold and windy morning ! Mike and I had really early starts today (10.07) so left Crawley early again and were parked at the hospital by 9am - one of the first to arrive ! We picked up our control descriptions and sat in the warm in the car looking at the map from 2006 and I kind of figured out which direction at least my course was going. Unfortunately, I forgot my thermal top today, so was a bit chilly getting to the start, but it wasn't far and was a bit sheltered.

 We got to the start and didn't have to wait too long and could see some of where people were going from the start - straight out, away from the start lane and into the undergrowth. We entered the start system for our 10.07 start with John and at the time punched the start and ran to the right box to pick up our maps. Unfortunately, they weren't separating the maps and placing one under the boxes, so as I was wearing gloves, I struggled to pick just one map up and wasted some time. We all seemed to be going the same direction to start with, almost due west, following a fence line through the green to a path, then through a gap between some dark green, over an earthwall and turned north to the first control on a cairn. I messed up control 2 a bit, as I ran too far north, instead of going back over the earthwall almost straight away and picking up on a small path, so ended up in an area which I thought was rough open and another path going east, which took me back where I wanted.

 Controls 3 to 6 were all in Woolbeding Common and I had to choose between route choices through bracken and heather or longer path running. Where possible, I did go for the path running, as I knew it would be quicker. 4 to 5 was interesting, as I had to go over the bracken, but at least it was downhill and there were tracks through it, even that early on. The course had a lot more climb than last week, and a fair bit was from 5 to 6 ! Looking back at it now (hindsight is a wonderful thing), maybe I could have taken a path to the east, which would have still involved climb, but may have been a more gradual one. It was downhill to 7, via some more brashings (after last Sunday's injury, I was being very careful on those) and Dave went racing past me here.

 7 to 8 was a bit of a slog, but following the paths wasn't too bad. Mike and I had the same control 8 and approached from similar direction, but Mike got a bit lost on this one ! Some of this area I recognised from 2006 - the paths were a bit wetter and muddier then I think ! From 8 to 10 was ok, a bit more climb and more path running as I thought it would be faster than the direct (brashing/saplings) routes. 10 to 11 was just a path run inbetween fields to the road and over into Great Common, the area used for the British Relays. There was an older guy in front of me for ages, who I was trying to catch up from 10 to 11, once over the road I followed the path onto a ride and remembered the gullies which you could run through quite easily from BRC06 and was spot on the re entrant for 11 ! I saw this other guy go off to the west a bit more and then looping back round as I headed off east to 12 !

 For 12 I was a little bit further east than planned, but again found others wandering lost in an area to the north of the control, so just headed off south, as I thought I needed to and bingo ! I could hear them both following me through the undergrowth as they realised I was off towards 13. The last three controls were all pretty close together leaving a slightly uphill run in to the finish in an open field south of the hospital building !

 It was good to finish and download - again I was 1st on downloading, of 1 today ! Early starts are a good thing, sometimes and I don't think starting later would have been much of an advantage today with route choice and elephant tracks. I took 86 mins for 6.8kms, not that fast, but it was more physical. The Forerunner said I actually ran 8.2kms today, 1.4kms further than the course length, so my mins per km don't look so bad over this distance (10.54 as opposed to 12.71).

 I ran back to the car, thinking Mike would have also finished and already be back to find myself locked out ! Luckily Michelle was back and I sat in their car to keep warm until Mike appeared. He didn't do so well today and got lost a couple of times, but like me he was 1st on dowloading of 1 !! No results up online yet, so have no idea how we did overall. It was a little cold so we didn't hang around much. I do know I beat Jim today though - he took 88 mins I think ! That doesn't happen often, so quite pleased with that !!

Update at 23.15 Sunday - the results (provisional) are now up and I was 3rd !! (of 4) and Mike was 5th by only 4 seconds ....