Skjærgårdscup 3 (2019-07-31)

3rd and last O+BBQ combo night and I made a nearly perfect race.
https://www.livelox.com/Viewer/Skj-rgardscup-3/elite?classId=220062

In the end Aslak Heimdal, one of Norway's best junior elite runners won but I was very happy to be less than 1 min/km behind him. :-)

Fresh legs up the steep uphill then good flow all the way into #1.

Some mental relaxation with the path running to #2, cut to the left when I got out of the green at the same time as I spotted the cliff to the right.

Another tough uphill to #3, managed to run all the way, hit my aiming point just south of the farm, then I carefully counted the ridges and valleys towards the control.

I ran a bit sideways in the beginning to #4, looking for the ridges with the least amount of high heather and nearly impassable bushes. At this control I caught up to Ivar Refsland, Svein S Jacobsen and Fredrik, then I passed them all into #5.

Up to this point I had the second best split to every control, only beaten by Aslak.

I felt that I had a good line to #6, but Tom A. Karlsen found a faster route slightly further north, skipping a few of the ridge crossings.

Easy but tiring down & up to #7. This was the only split I won.

Another short mental relaxation during the path running to #8, I just followed the path until the second slight right turn, then I used the boulders to verify my course. On this leg I also beat Aslak but was beaten by my son who had been shadowing me since #5.

Difficult to read the map all the way into the last control, I had stopped 3m away without seeing it when Fredrik found it notched into a narrow reentrant.

My route to the finish would have been OK in a dryer year, but with the dense vegetation lining the wheat field and nobody in front of me to break trail I probably lost 10-20 s versus simply going straight down to the road junction and around the field. Several runners opted to simply take the path down through the start triangle.