Windy Pits - a case of undue hesitation or loss of confidence

Went to the EBOR Windy Pits Regional Event on Sunday 21 May with the family.
Weather was forecast to rain some time after 11am - our start times were 11.30!! The kids got back in the dry, but I ran the last third of the course (no. 3, M45L - 5.8km) in increasingly heavy rain.
Thought I'd set off reasonably well, but the splits show I was still very sluggish over the first 4 or 5 controls - some 2 mins down on Alastair within 10 mins!
The first tricky bit was 8/9/10 in the area from which the map gets it's name. Was sure I came out of 8 in the right direction, but then stopped, thought I was too high up the spur so turned left downhill. It all still seemed to make sense, so went back up the spur, and there was no.9 - if I'd gone on for another 2m before stopping I'd have seen the flag. 2 mins lost!
Same thing 16/17/18 - took the safe route to 16, using the pheasant pen corner to attack 16. Originally, I was going to retrace my steps to the pen, run to the other corner and attack 17, but instead tried to go straight. Stopped, couldn't be sure, so ran back to the pheasant pen to re-attack. Found the flag straight away, only a few metres on from where I had stopped. Another 2 mins lost!
The forest was much nicer without the bracken, and the planner saved the best to last - smashing run in for the last 3 controls along some ancient and massive dykes.
Only grumble on the day was the pricing of the junior courses - £4.50 for a white is excessive!

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