FatBoy wrote:harry wrote:how does being out on your own affect it?
...(Graeme you listening?)
Oh all right then...
Long, long ago, when I was a student and the fields were big enough to do statistics on, we looked at correlation between start times, time taken and ranking points (which back then could be related to an expected time). We looked at the Chiltern Challenge (which was somewhat subject to undergrowth and bingoey pits), over several years.
Average time taken sped up by 15 minutes through the day. Of this about half could be attributed to "good people are more likely to ask for late starts". The rest to tracking up, busy forest, pack formation etc.
Also, though harder to quantify, in each case the very late starters were significantly slower than you would expect from ranking/extrapolating start times.
So the evidence, such as it is, backs up the claim that a first/last start combination will tend to cost you time.
None of which disagrees with harry's viewpoint that having the forest to yourself is a better experience, and well worth the cost of a few minutes.
I'll remember that next time I'm making a start list for her
Of course, it depends on the terrain. Here in Scotland, 6-day aside, tracks and packs are almost unknown.
Graeme