Phew! That was close. Drama unfolded on the streets of York this afternoon. At a little after 11am, Neil Northrop finished in a new fastest time of 24.57. 53 seconds later, Mike Sprot finished in a time of 24.50. 1 minute and 59 seconds later, I finished in a time of 24.49. The gathering hoards must've found it hard to contain their excitement.
It was a really fun run round the streets and snickleways of York with some pretty tricky controls and plenty of fast running and granny dodging. Physically, I felt strong and pretty nippy, but technically I was occasionally a bit wobbly. I even tried to run into a caravan park at one point and got re-directed by some local scallies. I was adrift in 3rd place it turned out with only a couple of controls to go, so I was pretty pleased with my strong finish that, as it turned out, got me the win.
But a little after I finished and the ANALysing began, I got in a bit of a boo because it turned out almost everyone else had saved time on me by crossing a high wall. Fun though sprint races are, this kind of ambiguity pisses me off, and the discussions after can be a little tedious. Had that wall been 10metres high, as it could well have been off the map, I'd have been laughing and feeling smug about spotting it. It turned out it was a good 20 seconds quicker to jump down it. At the start of the same leg, the best option was to climb up a crag (passable) which was a good 1.5m high. I lost some time dithering, trying to decide if it was allowed or not, before cimbing it.
So Sprotty and Neil both did the wall thing, as did Rach (2nd) in the women's race. Baker and Rob Palmer got to the wall, but had morals and took the extra penalty of running all the way round. Jenny and myself spotted it in advance and did the right thing. We both won. Karma.
I'm reluctant to use the word cheat. Ah screw it: cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat. To be fair though, Sprotty and Northrop were both running very well: the splits generally didn't seperate us much. Was class to see both the men and women's top 3s being from Sheffield.
Anyway, sausage and chips (a 3rd pub lunch in a row), and remembering the fact that it was a fun day out and I didn't actually care at all, snapped me out of my boo.
5.2km, 19 controls
1. Matt Crane 24.49
2. Mike Sprot 24.50
3. Neil Northrop 24.57
full results
Training:
