OBIK P20 Åpent KM (25-08-2015)

Torrential rains after more than two weeks of hot weather resulted in very wet conditions. I started as the third competitor in the entire race, by the second control I had seen and passed both of them.

1) OK. I stayed close to the railway line to minimize the green, even the light green was quite dense.

2) OK, very nice forest/terrain here!

3) Here I originally though I was going to #6 but realized my mistake while running up the path so I didn't lose any time.

4) OK except for never locating the indistinct path from the big marsh, when I felt I had gone far enough east I started using the contours instead and made a small wobble since I hadn't come quite far enough.

5) Easy but streneous!

6) Here I got stuck in the boulder field first, then I missed the (indistinct) path junction, lost 10-15 sec.

7) Pretty good plan and execution except for leaving the road a little bit too early, but I spotted an unmapped path going uphill there. It is possible that ath was made by rock climbers because it turned right quite soon, above the cliffs so I had to climb up in the heather from that point. Near the end I checked the path, marsh and cliffs but when I found the control I could see the entire cliff but no flag! After a few seconds I started going downhill but realized that I had to be in the right spot and returned to find the control perfectly hidden behind a spruce. Lost exactly 1 min here.

8) Compass direction, then I made a small right turn at the end because I never noticed the green area.

9) I started going straight then I noticed that the reentrant down to the path was extremely inviting, just old spruce trees with green moss on the ground, so I changed my mind. The green areas were quite dense so I was very happy to hit the control perfectly. I won this split time by more than 90 sec!

10) OK except for two things: The wet & slippery rock/scree slope was really dangerous in my Inov8 X-Talons which have no metal studs, so I had to move very carefully here. It would have been faster to take the road left instead and then cut over to the path leading back to the control.

11) OK except for running past the path junction just after the tunnel under the railroad: The junction was just 10-15 m past the tunnel exit, i.e. much closer than it looks on the map.

12) Dense undergrowth under the power lines caused me to miss the ditch when I crossed it, so I went too far into the forest. Dropped about 15-20 s.

13) OK except for some problems finding the flag.

Finish) The finish flag/punch was located somewhat offset from the center of the double rings, in the middle of an area of dense undergrowth. I lost another 15 s before I found it!

Good race until #7, but after dropping a minute due to that hidden flag I lost a bit of interest and stopped winning every split time, in the end I won the class (but not the course) by just a couple of minutes, having spent 12 min/km. I think this might be my slowest ever winning race. :-)