Run race ((street-O)) 44:55 [4] * 9.93 km (4:31 / km) +130m 4:15 / km
spiked:20/20c
First Summer Series of the season at Smiths Dell. A score event, which on an area this size means getting all 20 controls as fast as you can, and if you got the key decision - when to get the three controls on the far side of the freeway - right, there wasn't a lot to the route choice.
Somewhat to my surprise I felt sharp from the start - being on the bike for 30 minutes beforehand obviously helped the warm-up - and actually hit the first control first. Bruce, who lost a bit of ground on a route choice four controls in (and risked losing a lot more because his route involved an unnecessary railway crossing, but he got through just before the bells started), was still just ahead five controls in, but gradually pulled away. That left me dicing with Fredrik Johansson, who was running a bit faster than me but didn't seem to have his control flow quite going, so I would often get 10 or 15 metres on him there. I expected he was going to blow me away in the sprint anyway, but in the end he conceded it because he'd punched controls in the wrong boxes - something he didn't need to do (I doubt it would even have been checked). I suspect we'll have a few more scraps before the year's out. Felt at times as if I was going to struggle to sustain the effort, but held it together.
Quite pleased with this - suggests I'm at a similar level to where I've been the last two summers, which is better than I thought might have been the case after Sunday's shocker. A bit over 3 minutes down on Bruce (as close as I've been for a while) and 90 seconds on Andrew Hester.
Naturally I wasn't too upset with the day's events on the other side of the Pacific. The Presidential result wasn't really that much of a surprise if you'd been paying attention to the marginal-state polls rather than the national aggregates, but it was especially pleasing to see several of the more egregious Tea Party types go down in House and Senate races (although it looks like Michele Bachmann has just held on). The Republicans could, but probably won't, reflect that they might well control the Senate now had they not thrown away five very winnable seats over the last two elections by nominating candidates too extreme for the general population to countenance.