(Cross posted from Attackpoint. See also my leg by leg analysis and mistake and speed analysis.)
Burnham Beeches is one of my favourite areas – but it was a shame the weather wasn’t great, a gloomy overcast day, with rain for the second half. The map had a new section at the top, which most courses started in – I didn’t think too much of it, as it wasn’t technical. The real “meat” of the course was later on, down in Burnham Beeches itself.
Leg 12 to 13 must be the longest leg I’ve ever done – almost 2km, I think. I managed to accidently visit Control 23 on the way to 13… But I had a clean run up until No. 16, at which I misread the map rather badly. 17 was also bad, as it was very technical, and I just ran in to the area, hoping to hit it – never a good idea in retrospect. About 6 or 7 other people were milling around trying to find it too, so once one person did, there was a pack punching and moving off. I wasted time at 18 trying to lose the pack, and then 18-19 was another super-long leg – again well over 1km.
Another silly mistake near 21, a parallel error – but at least the 3 people following me therefore made the same mistake. From there on it was pretty straightforward, although there were still a few long legs left.
The course overall certainly felt like 12+km! Despite my good time (<8mins/km) I still finished well down the pack. That’s the annoying thing with M21L – being the hardest course, all the really good people run on it. If I had done M21S at the same speed I would have been well up the leaderboard. Still, as the phrase goes, better to be near the bottom of the top class, than near the top of the bottom class!
Oxford were out in force, including Kat and distracted, the latter who (again) beat me by about 5-10%. One day I’ll beat him, one day…! 😉
I was expecting a forested course today, as it’s in Ashdown Forest, but the course was almost entirely on grassy and heathery moorland, with various tank tracks providing fast routes. The area was cold, raining and misty when I arrived, so I had planned to run just the 8km short course – especially as Nick Barrable, Simon Evans and the Rollins were all running M21L. However, the maps had run out (I hadn’t pre-entered) so I ended up running the long. 11km in the rain was always going to be tough, but I got off to a good start, making only minor mistakes (<1 minute each) up to control 7. I was going well, running hard, and could be posting a good time in the tough conditions. Then, things went a bit downhill.
Control 8, as mentioned above, was a disaster, needing two relocations to fix, thanks to much confusion over marked and unmarked gorse bushes. 12 was a very technical control and I ended up a long way from where I should be. In the end, it was hidden in a gorse bush (unmarked), that I had run past at least twice before in my search. Some parts of the map felt very remote in the murky rain – even though it’s only Sussex, it felt more like the Scottish Highlands. 15-16 was possibly the hardest leg I’ve ever done – it was only short, with little climbing, but the marshes I tried to cross in the rain were man-eating – I ended up suddenly up to my waist several times, I’ve never been so glad to see a control. I fell in several more man-eating marshes, and was flat on my face several times after then too – it was a real fight to get around! I did however still have plenty of energy and was able to run well where I could. After a final section through pleasant woodland, the penultimate leg was a tough uphill stretch and the only leg for which I walked part-way.
This was a part of the New Forest I haven’t run in before. Got a lift from Southampton (where I was out the night before) – many thanks to distracted and OUOC. Arrived very hungover and sleep-deprived and having only eaten two bowls of cereal in the last 24 hours, so I decided to do the short course. 
Following the Map of Maps 1 and 2 projects, I’ve been working on an unofficial, location aware database of UK orienteering maps. It is based on the