Navigation time

[Taybank]

Just been round my Crieff Hill (C a'Barns) course. Knocked about 12 minutes off- a 20% improvement. Splits show that about four minutes of that was due to better route choice, five due to not repeating three big mistakes, the rest, less time spent map reading.

[madmike]

I tried the same over here in Feb and reran a course from Jan: 27.56 for the rerun compared with 37.45 for the Jan competition. Like you made time by better route choice and eliminating 2 errors; moreover, I would have been another minute quicker if some git had not cut down a distinctive tree in the interim. Not sure that I did any more map reading during the competition though.

That said, a few years ago I ended up running for both the club relay teams at the Lincolnshire Bomber, Leg 1 for Team 1 and Leg 3 for Team 2. As luck would have it I ended up with exactly the same gaffle and the 2nd time ran about 5 secs faster for 3 and a bit Km without having to navigate much(both runs very clean as technically simple).

I am surprised you put 3 mins down to less map reading but maybe I need to take more care.

[PhilJ]

I once planned a green course at Broughton Burrows (nice south wales sand dune area), checked all the sites, put all the controls out and collected them all in...so knew where they all were very well. Ran the course again after the event and still did not beat the winners time

[greywolf]

IMHO most punters will be at least 20% quicker "second time round" or with significant prior knowledge of the course/area ... the elite would speed up too but by a smaller %.
2 examples: last year I ran (n/c) a SOL in a familiar area, knowing where most of the controls were - probably the only time I'll ever beat Graeme by 23 minutes
and a couple of years ago, at a local forest sprint event at Roseisle: Ben Livesey, XC/road runner and occasional orienteer, went round 3k in 17 mins or so, when he saw that i'd done 16-something he decided he needed another go - and promptly burned round in 14 minutes

[AlanB]

Just been round my Crieff Hill (C a'Barns) course. Knocked about 12 minutes off- a 20% improvement. Splits show that about four minutes of that was due to better route choice, five due to not repeating three big mistakes, the rest, less time spent map reading.

Don't you naturally run faster in competitive conditions compared to a training run. When I used to run X/C I ran about 15% faster in a race than in a training run over the same distance. Perhaps, therefore, you spent more time navigating on the day.

[DeerTick]

I have an (extremely) vague memory of running the Scottish Champs in Tentsmuir in the seventies and repeating the run a week or two later ten minutes slower. Much the same these days - luck out on most of the 20% or so I screw up and I'll do well; otherwise ...

AP