Owls Count

This weekend was the JOK Chasing Sprint, held on Banstead Heath. The whole of this weekend was made more difficult by me forgetting to take any contact lenses with me and, so, having to run in my glasses - not the best way to start.

Prologue
In the morning was the prologue. A 5.9km course, with an, overly optimistic, estimated winning time of 25 minutes.

I started well. At number three I made a 40 second mistake, when I overshot the control. For the rest of the course I managed to keep up a reasonable pace, with small mistakes at eleven and twenty one - though I only noticed both of these mistakes from the splits and cannot remember anything particularly going wrong on either. The uphill finish took a lot out of my legs.

Chase
I was off about a minute after one person and had someone else ten seconds behind. Both of these runner were faster than me - with both having made mistakes in the prologue to put them further down the results. A four km course to navigate.

My afternoon start was even better than my morning start. I ran well for the first eight controls. By number nine, where I made a small mistake, I was running with both the person who started just behind me and the person from infront.

At number eleven I lost touch with the other two. I hit the wall and was unable to keep going at any kind of pace. Unfortunately, as I slowed down I also switched the brain off and made a large (3+ minute) mistake at twelve. I struggled through the next few controls, losing more time in the next few controls. At sixteen I was caught by someone who had started four minutes behind me. This spurred me on and from there I ran well into the finish.

All in all a good, enjoyable event. It just reiterates to me that I need to run faster. (And remember my contact lenses!)