I get the impression this is a beta track, RD. It certainly isn't a bad start, that's for sure. I had a teammate run it and he came up with 7:45.13. This
replay is a 6:01 run, and it's got a few miscues in it on my part. I'd say if I took the time to refine the shortcuts (and if I could see the markers lol), I could easily get it down in the low to mid 5:30s.
There are a wide range of views and opinions on shortcuts. The kind of shortcuts I found in this track are much too obvious, and they really slice your track up quite a bit, particularly between checkpoints 4 and 6, as well as 8 & 9. I definitely like your attempt at trying to add variety, and in many cases you succeed. Yep, there's room for improvement, but first take a look at the shortcuts.
Between adding a few more checkpoints and making adjustements in the terrain you can negate 80% of the cuts I found....probably all of them in fact. If not, models work wonders for that sort of thing as well.
While you're having a look at that replay I'll run the track several more times taking pictures, which will also include suggestions, recommendations, possibly a few questions, and the like. Just so you know, however, I'm in the middle of a rather major project, so it's going to take me a couple of days to take the pics and put all my thoughts down for ya...so if you don't mind being patient, I'll get it done.
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