Orienteering race 1:42:18 [5] 11.6 km (8:49 / km)
NOL long race. I was prepared for an epic after yesterdays slowness and started out a bit conservatively. The first few controls in the creek were tricky and I had a couple of small misses on these. went straight at the start of the long leg, then took the spur up past 13 onto the track. got caught by Rachel along the track (was pleased to have stayed in front that long!), then did my best to not stick with her on the next couple of legs by taking stupid routes though the green, but was still running with her on the way to 9... until suddenly I wasn't and I didn't really have a clue. had a bit of a space-out in the vague green, before working out that I'd gone about far enough and was probably too high. headed down the hill to re-locate, and found the rocks that were just above the control - 3mins lost, but could have been so much worse.
got caught by Aislinn after the second long leg, then we proceeded to stuff up the next 2 controls - very annoying to have all my (relative) time losses on the tricky ones - where has my navigation gone? then ran with Aislinn until we took different routes into the spectator control. I think mine worked better, cos I got ahead and didn't see her again. tried to make the most of the last loop to fit in some more mistakes - got the track junctions mixed up and headed off the map heading out on the loop, then miss read the creek around 18.
generally happy with the race, and felt much better racing than I'd expected. bit pissed off to make those stupid mistakes, but it was probably partly due to running harder than my fitness allowed for.