Coalfields Classic National Orienteering League Race 12 & WOC Trials (12/05/2012)

M21E 16th

I wasn't certain that I could run in the terrain with my calf, so I took it quite slowly and set myself a goal of getting through the race without any further damage. If I felt any strain I was going to abandon my course.

Fortunately my calf held up ok at jogging speed, and I was able to complete the race. I was not very confident, especially in the marshes and rough areas, so I was pretty slow.

It was a very good course with lots of changes of direction. You had to be on top of your navigation to have a good run.

My navigation wasn't brilliant. I got confused by extra tracks and lost a minute on 1. I got the angles wrong and finished 50m to the right.
My compass was poor on 11 and 12, and I got the exit completely wrong leaving 12 from not reading the map carefully.
I was lazy on 19; not using my compass or the track to the right. I ended up a wide left and had to cover extra distance.
26 was hard to find - it was a broken fence. I found the flag, but didn't see anything of a fence.
I lost another 30s on 27. The tracks were not clear, and I when I got to the clearing I couldn't see the control feature. I expected that it would be obvious in the clearing. I checked out another flag (wrong code) and eventually found a the control on a tiny termite mound behind a bush. It turned out that the bush was a tiny green dot on the map, which I didn't notice.

Several of the features on this map appeared to be very small, including the tiny black circles for man made features