It was the CompassSport Cup first round at Longleat today. We were expecting minor chaos as a result of the change in parking but in reality, dropping Christine and the children off at assembly and then getting the minibus back from the house worked very smoothly. Christine was running first and I took the children round the Dr Who themed string course. I have to wonder how many of the participants actually know who Dr Who is but at least Emma was able to understand the world’s worst knock-knock joke afterwards! It also has to be said that they did have a very impressive Tardis stationed at the start.
Christine returned from a good run and then it was my time to head out on the brown. I didn’t get off to a good start, wasting about a minute and a half on the second control. I thought my next blunder was getting caught in the rhodies on the way to number 11. It turned out to be worse than that but more of that later… Minor wobble at 13 where I ended up at a rootstock too far west. Ben Chesters then caught me after that which was a spur to pick the pace and I managed to finish in front of him.
So, back to the disaster… on download I discovered that I had missed number 10. Looking at the GPS track I must have run straight past it but I don’t remember the control at all so I’m prepared to accept that the disqualification is valid. I suspect I was distracted by Matt Crane coming past at the previous control and it was probably around this point that he disappeared from sight. The fight through the undergrowth then meant that I failed to look at my map again until I was out on the road. Also, given it was an inter-club competition, I was making a point of using the backup card. As a consequence I wasn’t checking the display which might have alerted me to the mismatch in control numbers. Shame really as I would have come 5th. Fortunately the club still qualified for the final (BOK having been in the top three last year).