Eureka Challenge Mass Start Hagaby at Chinamans Flat. Started out the way i finished yesterday - terribly! Couldn't make any sense of the map early on, was on the wrong side of the gully on the 1st control and even once we got the control i couldn't work it out. made another fairly big mistake on the 1st loop not long after keely and i got a small lead, keely got it but i ended up at the back of a big group after they came through and showed me where it was...
the second loop went a little better, started to calm down a bit and felt a bit more relaxed when i looked over my shoulder and saw simon. then coming into the end of the loop i got slowed down by some really heavy bracken - sounds like i wasn't the only one to go through it! lost 100m or so but just cruised into the map change without getting too stressed about it.
i was happy to have simon with me on the start of the last loop but i had no idea where craney or any others were, then a few controls into it we were all together. not sure where we formed the lead pack - craney, simon, oscar and myself, but we shared the lead and ran pretty well for most of the last loop. i went to sleep a bit when i was on the front with just a couple of controls to go and left the track too early. luckily the other 3 followed and to be honest i wasn't too worried, i had far more chance of keeping with oscar and craney in the forest than i did on the track. but then as we were coming into the control we saw keely and nsw stinger punching right in front of us - i hadn't expected that, i don't think any of us did. from there it was on, fast and furious. i had no chance against those boys in a sprint, happy to hold off simon at least to get 4th. what a great race, awesome fun. i never felt physically comfortable but at least i was able to run at that speed, pretty happy given how disrupted my training has been lately with so much travelling. hopefully a few more long runs before easter will sort me out.
EPOC 285ml/kg
TE 5.0
Craney has a good write up of the race.