Run race ((orienteering)) 1:41:45 [4] *** 14.7 km (6:55 / km) +590m 5:46 / km
spiked:21/25c
NSW Long Championships. Found out before the start that Julian wasn't running, which turned this into a potentially winnable race. As noted before in these pages the NSW Championships is one of only two state championships I've never won at senior levels, and opportunities are quickly running out.
They will have one more year to run out because I didn't win this one either, thanks mainly to a slowish start which saw Hoggster come close to catching me at 9. I got two route choices wrong, not dropping on 2 and dropping on 8 (an excellent leg), losing about a minute apiece, and was also a bit on the slow side, although my fine navigation was much better than yesterday. Missed 20-30 seconds on 12, not long before the map change, and thought Hoggster might get me, but he didn't. By this stage my running was going pretty well and I settled into a good stretch through the map change, only to be interrupted by losing 2 minutes at 15. (I don't think it was in the right place (and neither did anyone else on our course), but it ultimately had no effect on the placings). This was slightly rattling but things soon got back under control, and my last quarter was excellent - as strong as I've felt at the end of a long race for ages (which probably indicates that I didn't get my pace judgement quite right). Might have caught Ben if it had been an 18k race, but it wasn't, so had to settle for second place and fastest on the second map :-)
Ben 99, me 101, Hoggster 103, Rob 104.
I'm still getting my race judgement sorted out but this will do me good, and I think running a half-marathon next weekend will do so too. Australian Long Championships and WMOC are the main targets from here.
It was a cold day (although pleasant for running out of the wind); when my fingers have thawed out I'll have a report to write on how Australia is having its hottest August on record.