Day3 and the second medium length event with 4km and 120m climb on m60
Rosie and I had very early starts today so were up and on the road after a quick brekkie by 7.30am from our ‘delightful’ holiday house. The start was 2.4km from the event centre so a brisk 35min walk served as a decent warm up
Due to the early start I was mostly alone on my course so without distracting other competitors around it was easier to concentrate, read and interpret the intricate map detail and finally after 3 events get a clear error free run - coming after yesterday’s long event where two lengthy errors took me right to within the last 25% of finishers and then a mispunch (although I’m adamant it had flashed when I wizzed by) at the night sprint meant no result- fortunately the night sprint is a fun extra and does not count towards the main competition in which any mispunch means automatic elimination
The course today was well planned in the best area so far: complex and finely detailed but with good running and little undergrowth- the controls came and went, mercifully where I went looking for them, with no errors, so a position today just inside the top half of the field
Rosie made one small error on her otherwise clean run but this unfortunately cost her a few places in the results
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Meanwhile on M45…
With the combined scores of the first two events, @Pete had a slight lead. Today it was a middle distance of 5.1km and 160m climb.
I jokingly asked Pete, who was starting 8 minutes ahead of me, which control I would catch him up by. “Control 1” he joked…
I was therefore fairly surprised to see Pete at control 1… he had spent 10 minutes passing tantalisingly close to the control several times but missing it.
For me, everything was going to plan… until control 4… I got to the gate South of the control, but for some reason tried to read my map as if I was at the fence between 2 and 3. Nothing matched and I wandered around for ages until reaching a fence corner that allowed me to relocate. An 8 minute error.
Everything again preceded as planned - I love this terrain. As Andy mentioned, detailed contours and mapped features on good terrain. A 10, Pete appeared - we later discovered I had overtaken him at 3, he had got past during my error, but then made a few errors that allowed me to get in front again.
We tried to avoid each other, choosing different micro routes, but ultimately it came down to a sprint down the hill to control 14 and the sprint finish. I held the best line on the bend, with the control to my right - Pete in the excitement of the moment powered past for the run in, neglecting to punch the control.
A huge error on a medium event is costly, so I finished 44th overall. Considerations to Pete 
for his miss punch.
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