Wow, what a nice day and lovely area ! We had run here before as the Surrey Five O as part of the World Cup in 2005, but I didn't remember or recognise it much. We got there kind of early, as I thought it would take longer to get there than it did ! We were one of the first cars in and subsequently were parked the furthest from the start and closest to the finish/download ! Other Southdowners had done the same so we had an SO enclave at one end of the linear parking !
We could see one control across the road from where we'd parked, which was really useful for Mike ! He knew exactly where it was when he had to go to it later on..... We had plenty of time to relax, talk to Ultrasport and figure out where the start was. We had a start block rather than an actual start time, which works well as we didn't need to rush to ensure we didn't miss it. It was a nice walk to the start, and was pretty much where I had thought it would be ! My course, 4 was very full, so I had a bit of a queue and wait ahead of me, Mike walked straight into the minus 3 minute box almost !
I started about 10.15 and my first control was in the vague area I had thought it would be - I started off fairly easy on the path, then cut a corner off to another and onto the thicket where it was. I was feeling better running today after my poor efforts at Millennium Wood yesterday. I went cross country towards two, which I overshot slightly and had to double back to, then again cross country towards three. I was using thickets to navigate from, being quite careful I was exactly where I thought I was ! I used a line of thickets to navigate into number four, a depression and went cross country again for five. There were choices via paths, but they were either a bit uphill or downhill from where I was - the direct line was inbetween them all.
Five to six was uphill a little across a couple of paths and some rough open, and onto 7 again across some open and a path. It was in a depression right next to a path. Onto eight was ok,a abit of a path run again, cutting cross country nearer the control. Out of eight I went downhill on a path to an open area with powerlines, then dropped down again a bit more to another one and ran along till I saw the control on a spur. Towards ten, I had to contour a bit, well a lot, which I'm not great at ! There was an unmarked path too, which didn't help, well, it did as I followed it for a bit, then climbed up to a big hole, which was marked and I knew where I was. I then contoured a bit to the control.
From ten to eleven, I tried contouring more and ended up on a big path, near a junction close to the control site. After eleven, I don't think I chose the right route as I tried to go direct. This took me through a rough open area with some bracken.... not good. I ended up on a path, where I should have gone round anyway, then went off direct and was spot onto twelve. There was a small track out of twelve, through the thickets and ontowards the path near thirteen, which I could see once I was off the main path. I followed this smaller path up the hill to a junction, then headed off towards fourteen. Steve went past me at this point and helped me a little ! I went direct to fifteen, which was ok and also where Dave caught me up. To sixteen, there were route choices, I went direct ish, but I think I should have either gone round to the north from 15, or round to the south along the paths once I'd gone out of 15... never mind. I did end up where I wanted, but stupidly followed a guy on my course (I think) who went east of where I thought the control was.... Ended up losing a bit of time as I then had to go west more.
Onto 17 was fine, back out and down a path, then across a recently felled area towards 18 (uphill again). There was another felled area to 19, then across some lovely area to 20 in a gully. It was then just a race to 21 and follow the tapes to the finish. It took me 74 minutes, where it took Anna 53 .....
We were in an area of the map I didn't run in last time I was here, which was nice. It was really runnable in most places, but I did strggle a bit with some of the greener undergrowth. I did tire a bit towards the end of the course too, more training needed I think !