Knole Park SAX District Event, 18 June

Ran the Brown course at Knole Park. Another hot and quite humid day meant the pace was pretty slow – huge areas of bracken in the first part of the race also slowed me down.

Despite half the map being out of bounds due to tree plantations, and the other half seemingly out of bounds due to a golf course, the planners did manage to get a good course out of the map. This was really a race of three parts – an orienteering race for the first few km, then a road race, 2km down a hot, dusty road, and finally a cross country race to the finish.

I had a poor start – I didn’t recognise the crucial “small fenced enclosure” symbols, thinking they were depressions instead. The head-high bracken also confused navigation. The result was that No. 1 was my worst control – the exit was also bad, so I was slow to No. 2. No. 6 was tricky, trying to find a way into the site without getting stung by nettles. My route from 7-8 was lazy. Then the course dropped into some woodland, which was extremely pleasant after the hot sun.

I overshot No. 11, then on to the road race – 12-13 was 1km down a long, hot road, and 13-14 was 1km back up another road. Finally, some easy controls to the finish.

Finished 8th= out of 39 runners. I’m pleased with this result, I’m definitely running better now than I was a year ago.

This event is probably the last weekend event I’ll be at before the end of the season. I’ve done 34 races this season which is great.

Mistake Analysis:
1: Poor map reading.
2: Poor map reading.
3: Hesitation.
6: Difficult terrain (nettles/bracken.)
11: Poor navigation.
13: Difficult terrain (bracken.)

(Cross-posted from Attackpoint.)