Run race ((orienteering)) 31:40 [3] *** 5.1 km (6:13 / km) +60m 5:52 / km
spiked:26/26c
Opening race of the Melbourne City Race weekend at Edgewater, in the vicinity of the Mervyn G. Hughes Oval, although the only time we saw the Merv was running across it on the green jersey leg (not so good for those of us whose weight post-elite career has gone the same way as Merv's).
I've barely got through an evening run in the last two summer seasons so it was good to at least tick that box - had to keep reminding myself to get up regularly during the afternoon at work. Didn't feel entirely convincing but did manage to run up all the hills/steps (an advance on last week), and loosened up somewhat in the last third. Pretty slow, though, which I was aware of pretty early on when Asha burned past me, and at the end when Tash (who is my age again as of today) went through. A few interesting route choice legs in the Victoria University section, but otherwise a pretty straightforward course. Didn't get close to my sprint benchmark of 50% behind the elite winner, although Aston is better than most of the people I've run sprints against lately (he was in the mid-18s).
Was a bit surprised to see a bit of Belinda in the later stages taking routes which made no logical sense, but it turned out she was running course 2.
The run to the start triangle involved going through a culvert under the main road with perhaps 1.5m clearance - memories of the pipe under Hindmarsh Drive which was an occasional training route for me back in the day (and for Tara and possibly others more recently, if I recall correctly). My neck did not enjoy this.
And some excitement on the way home when, stopped in traffic, the person in front of me engaged reverse and backed into me (at some speed) for no obvious reason. No apparent damage to my car apart from a bent number plate, but his vehicle's rear end was looking a bit worse for wear.