I overshot two junctions (one by accident and the 2nd because it had a footpath sign on) and that was pretty much the only problem with my navigation! I think I picked the fastest routes to all the controls, apart from 8 - 9 I went down some single track which seemed pretty slow and so for the 2nd part of that leg I thought if I floored it I could get around the road faster, In hindsight I think that the singletrack would have been the faster option, as the road climbed towards the end and the singletrack stayed high... Oh and I stopped when I came across Stodge taking photos and so I was chatting away whilst getting down a rocky descent and he shouted "Concentrate" as I went around the corner. So I assumed I had done something stupid and stopped to find out which junction I had missed. But for once I hadn't done anything wrong!
I was worn out by the time I got to the finish as it was a steady climb there, I pedalled like crazy but it was all a bit slow motion - must be all that foot-o I've been doing wrecking my cycling legs! I was relatively dry and clean up until the last control, which was in a load of bog, had to get off too so got a foot full of black stuff - Lovely!
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| Chattering away... Photo by Mark Stodgell |
