Ås by Night & Fog Cup #5 (2013-01-29)

The run in Halden on Saturday resulted in a lot of stiff leg muscles that hadn't been used for a few months, but no lasting hip pain so I asked nicely and was allowed a late entry to this event. Thanks to Ivar & Jo Inge!

Thre was about 10-15 cm wet snow in the terrain, with a lot more in some open areas, so by starting half an hour before everyone else I got the benefit of virgin snow to make tracks in. :-)

Nr 1 was OK, more or less a compass course with some slight detours to avoid the most problematic windfalls and other heavy vegetation. I spent a little time less than 10 m from the control because I couldn't see the cliff face behind a dense spruce cluster.

Towards nr 2 I decided to follow the path, I only found it because a couple of people had walked along it, otherwise it was invisible below 25-30 cm of snow. It would probably have been faster to follow a compass course in the light green, as there was a lot less snow inside the forest.

I tried to follow paths and roads as much as possible to nr 3, with the result that I started searching for nr 4 first. As I continued north to nr 3 I realized my mistake, so I only lost a minute or so here.

Going back to nr 4 was easy, even if I didn't manage to follow my own tracks!

OK to 5, ended up a little too far north but realized it immediately.

The area down to the big path before 6 had logging activitly, so I could follow some fresh tractor trails, then when I got to the path I didn't know if I was east or west of the indistict path leading south, spent about 30 sec finding it.

Took the control by careful pace counting and a 90 degree turn from the path that hit it perfectly.

With the existing conditions it was obvious I had to run all the way around to nr 7.

The logged area halfway to 8 was the worst in the entire race, up to 50-60 cm snow covering cut down branches, I should have tried to avoid it by going further south!

OK to 9 (I did see the path after 60% of the leg, but with no tracks on it there was no reason to try to follow it.)

It might have been faster to go straight down the hill towards 10 but at this point I was very happy to be running on a well-used path where I didn't have to break trail.

I never saw the small rectangular fence which my track crosses on the way to the last control, it has probably been removed.

In the end I was 9.5 minutes behind, a couple of minutes due to mistakes, maybe 3 due to the trail-blazing and the rest is simply me being terribly out of shape now. This can only get better now that I can run again though!