We took a full car to the Happy Herts event at Egypt Woods and Burnham Beeches today. After our joint effort at the last National Event I harboured hopes of catching Paul Nixon four minutes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. Instead, I made a beginner’s error on the sixth control, searching for the control one hillside too soon. A little later, having executed the long leg perfectly, I then wasted at least two minutes on the following control. I tried to cut a corner but then failed to find the path I was cutting the corner to! When I eventually located the control Roger Thetford was hot on my heels.
Two controls later, as I attempted to locate the flag from the wrong side of the circle through some green, Roger overtook me. I then made the mistake of racing after Roger only for us to lose another couple of minutes and have Sarah Rollins catch us. Managed to stay ahead of Sarah for the next five controls but my body and brain were starting to tire. In particular, my rough compass was starting to get a little too rough and as, I wandered off the straight line, Sarah went past.
Dave Rollins finished not far behind us having stormed round the 12.3km in 68 minutes. I was some eight minutes down with rather too many people appearing between us in the results!