Owls Count

Days 4 and 5, of the O-Ringen, were to the north and west of Mjölby, respectively. Both days finished through the edge of the town into the same assembly area. Day five included a bridge in the assembly area, after a run across the muddy last control. All of my routes from the week are on RunOway.

Day 4 - Skogssjön
This area reminded me of some of the military areas in the south of England. Certainly the orienteering was easier than the first three days and I finished higher up the field. My time was 60 minutes to a winning time of 31. My running speed for the whole course was faster and I kept a good consistent pace until dying a few controls before the end.

I made a silly mistake at number 2, when I came in on a wrong bearing, from a path junction, and missed the control and took a few minutes circling the area to find the control. One particular note was that the paths were more definite and there was no problem distinguishing indistinct paths from elephant tracks.

Day 5 - Hallevadet
The last day was a chasing start. As I was already a long way behind the leader I was off in the ‘mass start’ - a section where a runner is started every fifteen seconds. My aim for the start was simple: get into contact with the map quickly and catch some people infront of me. The second aim proved easier than expected - I caught the first person long before the start triangle!

I took just over 60 minutes compared to a winning time of 37 - even closer to the winner than on the previous days. I had a small wobble going to 6 when I charged off to the path from 5 and got confused by my compass pointing in the wrong direction until I realised that I had hit a different path to the one intended and had to hurriedly sort out the problem and get moving again.

I kept my speed up reasonably well. However, on the longer legs I was not able to keep the pace as high as I would have liked. The previous days of running and all the walking had taken there toll on my legs.

Overall
Overall I finished 148th out of 202 in H21K. During the week my orienteering definitely improved. Certainly I do not run quickly enough, but I knew that before I went!