As you’ve probably noticed from the last two event entries, I’ve started to list categorise the mistakes I make during each race, in the hope that I can identify and work on the worst ones. I’ll endeavor to keep the “poor mapping” excuse to a minimum – bad workmen like to blame their tools, so I’ll try and stay balanced. Note, the reasons all need to be ones that could cause a multi-minute mistake – almost everyone makes sub-minute mistakes on courses for a wide variety of reasons – it’s not those I’m tracking here.
So far, I have the following – if you know any more please add them to a comment and I’ll add them on here.
- Navigational error
(e.g. bad compass bearing, bad orientation of the map, natural “drift”.) - Map-reading error
(e.g. simply looking at the wrong bit of the map, not spotting a point feature or vegetation change.) - Poor route choice
(e.g. it looked great when you glanced at it, but you somehow missed the plainly more obvious route.) - Parallel error
(e.g. two similar valleys, went up the wrong one…) - Poor pacing/scale awareness
(e.g. running on 1:10000 map for the first time in a while, tending to overshoot the control, or under-run to it.) - Inverted contours
(e.g. mistaking a hill for a depression, or vice versa.) - Contouring error
(e.g. accidently drifting down (or, more rarely, up) a slope you are trying to cross level.) - 180 degree/90 degree error
(e.g. temporarily getting N and S mixed up, running in completely the wrong direction.) - Distraction
(e.g. inadvertent following of other competitors or bad bias when choosing route.) - Hesitation
(e.g. other competitors causing focus to wander, or tiredness after a hard leg.) - Fatigue
(e.g. significantly slower running due to exhaustion. Perhaps not really a “mistake”.) - Unanticipated hazard
(e.g. marsh actually uncrossable, thicket really is impassable, needing a lengthly diversion.) - Poor attack point
(e.g. forgetting to pick one that allows you to aim-off, one that is itself hard to fine.) - Poor mapping
(e.g. missing vegetation patch or vegetation boundary, misplaced point feature.) - Bingo control
(e.g. control hidden, or control on point feature in middle of featureless, low visibility terrain.)
The last two are not the fault of the runner!
2 replies on “Types of Mistakes”
Both good points – I’d include losing contact as a “Map-reading error”, but I’ll put contouring errors in their own section.
Would say losing contact with the map, and contouring errors – too far up/down a slope are a couple of others you could add if they’re not covered by what you’ve already written…