ACT Long Champs and the Jim Sawkins Classic Handicap at Timber Tops. 3rd place, 6min behind Doyley. Got off to a bad start, with no warm-up and then missed the actual start as I made a last second decision to put my sunnies back in my bag. Doyley took off hard, dropping even Marty and I puffed along somewhere behind. The two of them were gone by the pivot control and I ran the rest of the course by myself. It turns out Marty and I had the same split but he stuffed the first control after the pivot majorly (perhaps ran the wrong loop first) and ended up half an hour down.
I ran okay, feeling a bit stronger in the terrain and on the hills. Nav wasn't too bad but got confused by the old map at my #8 and then lost focus for #9 so lost about 2min here. Apart from that there were only a few little misses including a natural break on the long hill climb. Happy to be so close to Doyley and Shep. Maybe things are looking okay for Aus champs?
A fun and fast course by Acejase. Pity the mass-start field wasn't bigger with more head-to-head racing.