On Sunday we drove all the way to Southampton to run orienteering. It was one of the major senior events in England as it was one of the three selection races for Interland 2012, an international cup against Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and France. Therefore my expectations were slightly higher than for an average regional race. It turned out to be great and definitively worth driving. A classic distance with a 10,1km course and a 1:15000 map in beautiful terrain of New Forest with wild ponies galloping around did not let me down.
The course was very runnable and I enjoyed it a lot. For most parts it was quite open and beautiful, with only little slowing vegetation. There were some really wet and flooding marshes but they were small and crossable with a few long jumps. To the first control I followed the path quite far but noticed then that the white forest was good to run and after that I went mostly pretty straight. The first three controls I hit well but on the forth I didn't see the control right away although I came straight to the marsh. Fifth and sixth all right. To seventh I had my best split. It was great, just speeding downhill and checking the bearing. Then it went pretty straight and smoothly all the way to 12th but on my way there I may have lost some seconds in the ditches. 13th okay again but then I lost some time passing the river on the way to 14th and again when taking a gel on the control. It didn't go too well to open the zipper at the backside of my tights. I both fall down and accidently stopped my garmin there. I didn't notice that at that point and continued my race to the finish. The rest of the course went well too although I didn't enjoy the last four legs as much as the preceding part of the course. I was happy with my run but a bit disappointed that I only got part of my gps-route :/
