SOG Local Event – Fittleworth and Hesworth Commons, near Pulborough
The green course was almost “butterflied†– you went out around one common, coming back past the start, then a 400m run along a public footpath and across two roads to go around the next common. The blue course was a “proper” butterfly which kept returning to a common control.
I liked this course. The woodlands were open and runnable and the landscape was interesting and technical, though there was lots of “rough open†with waist high, rotting bracken as well as some heather and still-vicious brambles in a few places. Each common is a high spot in the local landscape, with sharply defined sand hills, so lots of steep slopes and a few banks. It was physically quite demanding if you went straight, as I tended to do. Seeing just how many paths there were, and being warned that they were not all shown on the map, I had decided not to rely on paths if I could help it.
I was fairly pleased with my performance, going faster than recently and making no big mistakes, though the precision of navigation could have been better. At several points I was getting well ahead of others on the same leg, only to see them catch up or pass me because they went slightly more directly and tightly into the control. It was as if I had a “feel†for the landscape and knew very quickly what direction to go and roughly where the control was, but lost out on the approach – often having to relocate slightly close to the control. At one point (control 6) I found the control easily enough, but I came down on the right of the earth bank when I was expecting to come down on its left end – quite good but lacking precision.
The last control of all was the only one I messed up significantly. I concentrated on contours and paths, missing some very obvious clues from buildings and fences that were further away but easily visible, which would have been good handrails, so I came off the path too early and contoured along the hillside, going very slowly looking for the control long before I was near it. I then twisted my hip which hurt a lot and almost stopped me. Fortunately, it “walked off†fairly quickly, and I was able to run in to the finish, but I think I lost at least five minutes. I was 26th, but probably lost five or six places on the last control.
I appreciated the mulled punch and a mince pie in the village hall afterwards.