SOG Local Event – Tilgate Park and Forest
Rather chilly this morning, but sunny and crisp too. There was a huge turnout with over 150 runners at Tilgate Forest, 
on the southern edge of Crawley.
The first couple of legs were through park land, across manicured lawns and ornamental lakes, but soon plunging in and out of genuine forest. The course had constantly changing demands and some places were tricky. I had a fairly good run – in 51:46 for 4.5km, but I had three bad legs. I completely messed up 2 to 3, coming out of the control in the wrong direction and being a long way off line before realising. I was quickly in the circle for control 9, but it took me ages to identify which pit the control was in. Things were even worse at 10, when instead of taking the safe and simple route, I ploughed through the forest, got the line wrong and had to run round, then could not quite pin down the control. In all I lost about seven or eight minutes, so it should have been a much faster run.
I was disappointed to find I had come 26th – my worst result in this series. It was a much better run than the place suggests. There was such a huge turnout that a couple of minutes’ difference made many places – making the loss of seven minutes even more irritating. I could easily have been in the top fifteen in a field of over 50, but have no-one to blame but me.
Alex Lines has posted a video which gives some flavour of this event and even has a half second shot of me – inevitably looking lost! The map and peoples’ routes are on the SO routegadget.