Mike and I had requested early start times again today and were in the first start block (10.00am). I like start blocks, as there's no stress about getting to the start for a certain time. Yes, you do still have to start within the block, but it's usually a half hour window. As at Holmbury, Mike could almost start straight away, whilst I had to wait again on Course 4. It seemed as though they were starting us one every two minutes, which didn't make much sense as the queues would only build.
Anyway, we were amongst the first to start, the pre start being round the corner from the start flag, so you couldn't see where anyone was going particularly. I was eventually moved into the start boxes and saw Mike start. On picking up my map, the first control was immediately to the south of the start, off the path I was on. I headed off the path and tried contouring round a bit, which I'm not good at, but I did manage to follow the shape of the land a bit better than usual ! I'm not sure if the veg boundaries were exactly as mapped though. I dropped a bit low, or thought I had and found the path so headed up a bit again, then had to drop down again a bit onto the control, once I saw it ! From there, I headed off uphill towards two, again, some of us weren't convinced the map was right here either. Anna and I both thought there was a distinct veg boundary which wasn't mapped and which confused a few of us ! I found the control quicker than Anna !
Two to three was fine, it was a short leg. Three to four was good too, I dropped down onto a path then up again and followed a veg boundary right onto it. Out of four, back onto a path and I ran round the path (the long way) to avoid going through some light green. From my earlier experience of the veg boundaries, I wasn't risking it ! I picked up another small path and dropped down again and round the bottom of a field, where I did cut the corner a little, but it may have been better not to ! Anyway, I headed off again and into the undergrowth for five, then back out onto a smaller path towards six. I came out near a building and headed back into the undergrowth, following a veg boundary round to six. I wanted to avoid too much climb to only have to drop down again. To seven was a short leg again, but uphill ! It was quite tough going in places, to seven there were quite a lot of brashings.
Onto eight and nine, were ok, a mixture of path running and navigating through the undergrowth ! Then had a road crossing (not timed) and a short leg to ten. This side of the road was lovely and quite runnable (compared to the early part of the course). From 11 to 12, I messed up a bit and found 13 first ! Due to me not being 100% sure where I was and in parallel terrain a bit. Anyway, I then had a relatively quick run back to 13 ! I had a good route to 14, but found some old barbed wire on the way, which was loose on the ground and clung to me for a bit.
Over to fifteen was back over the road and I started to see more other runners. At the beginning of the course, I didn't really see anyone, which was nice. I dropped down the hill and across a couple of paths, then followed a fence line and across an open area to sixteen, which was a ruin. From there, it was uphill again, after going round a lake to 17. The direct route went across a lot of grot, so I took the path route again. I came back along some of the same path towards 18. From there it was a bit of a drop down to a path, and further towards a ditch for 19. I deliberately ran along the path as far as I thought I needed to before I dropped down, as it didn't look too pleasant ! Apparently, someone did then take the out of bounds route across a field to 20, rather than follow the ditch along and cross a fence and up another hill, like those I was running with did.
The last control wasn't far and was hidden in a pit, near the walk from Assembly to the start ! Those heading to the start at this stage would see those of us finishing and heading towards this control. It was just a matter of running the last 100m to the finish then ! I finished in 1h 29mins, 30 mins behind the leader and 20 mins behind Anna again ! Anna thought she'd been longer, I think we both found it a bit tough in places, especially at the beginning and around control 2.