Loffelunken (15.09.2012)

Came 2nd in the H21 Grade at Loffelunken in Sweden. Quite easy terrain with lots of tracks, but there were a few vague areas where I should have been more confident and kept running, rather than trying to relocate in an area with no features. (1) Ran over a car crossing a stream which was pretty cool. But in the circle I couldn’t see the control because it was hidden behind a tree, and the knoll was very flat which made me uncertain +0:05. (2) The control I am most gutted about. Thought I had gone too far on my first approach so turned around and ran back along the ridge to try find the small hill. Instead I saw control 3 turned around again. If only I had looked around more when I thought I had gone too far, because I was practically on the control. (5) Anton went right and I went left but the times were very similar. (7) Should have been more confident on my bearing again. Either would have hit the control or the ride to the right of it and nailed the control. Instead I tried to figure out where I was in perfectly flat featureless forest. (11) Too high even though it felt like I was on the edge of the flat at the top of the hill. (12) The mistake here was really annoying. There was another control on the knoll just south of 12. When I got here I thought I must be at the knoll by the track, but the felled forest was too close, so I was really confused. I jogged back and had a look after and the two controls were MUCH too close. My Garmin measured 13m and my pacing 16m. Since they were on pretty similar features, they should have been at least 60m apart. It seems so pointless to have two controls so close together. If you want to split courses up to prevent following, doing this on controls 15m apart is not going to split anyone. Lost +0:30.