Ås by Night & Fog Cup #1 (21-11-2017)
Catégorie: Competition
Carte/région: Eldor
Distance: 6.7 km
Temps: 62:59
HR moyen: 149
HR maximum: 166
2+ min stupid mistake on #6, 6-8 minutes on #8!

I ran OK to the first 5 controls except for a 20-30 s wobble on #3: These kinds of errors are hard to avoid in a night race in terrain like that, with the paths covered by snow and lots of cliffs mapped and not which make it hard to keep the direction.

#4 was OK and #5 very good. I could have passed the first green area slightly further left but it is very hard to discover the best way through forest like this at nighttime, but when I hit the first knoll I found a nice route along the cliff line, across the green stripes (which mostly consists of large fallen trees on this map, very hard to pass!) and over the open yellow patch and down to the control knoll.

My plan was to go slightly left to #6, staying in the saddle between the hills, but I messed up and went too far to the right. Lost 2 min here.

I managed to bypass the worst windfall areas to #7 and when I hit a precursor to the path I was aiming for I was quite happy. The final light green was (as usual) quite runnable since it consisted of planted spruce that was tall enough so that most of the lower branches were dead, allowing room to pass between the trees.

At this point I was nearly done, just needed to retrace my route through the old Tangen homestead and then run alongside the field by Ommen: The problem that made me lose my composure totally happened alongside the houses, close to where the indistinct path starts: At this point I hit a nice road, coming from the houses across the field and then going east alongside the field!

Normally I would have disregarded this, assuming the road was newer than the map, but I knew that the map is brand new and made by probably the best mapper in Norway, and the road looked like it had been there for years! I stood still for at least a minute, looking all over the map for anywhere else I could see a field & road that matched what I could see, before I finally decided to run to the end of the field (along the road) and then take a bearing into the forest. As my track show, at this point I really didn't trust my orienteering and I veered off course, relocated myself when I located the first path junction I had passed towards #1, but still didn't manage to find it for several more minutes.
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Ås by Night & Fog Cup #1 (21-11-2017) Ås by Night & Fog Cup #1 (21-11-2017)