Running warm up/down 10:00 [3] 1.86 km (5:22 / km) +35m4:54 / km shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280
Run to the start. Struggling up the hills so padded it out to 10 minutes hoping I would start to feel stronger without much luck. Views on the way to the start were almost good enough to make the weekend worthwhile without even running a course.
Orienteering race 1:08:51 10.72 km (6:25 / km) +295m5:39 / km shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280
H1 at Frazzle. Stuffed up number 1 quite badly when I got pushed off line by the fallen branches and wasn't prepared to slow down enough to adjust my plan after the fast run across the paddock. I knew I had gone down into the top of the clearing but didn't stop to work out what I needed to do from there and ran across below the control. Relocated when I could see the gully near 4 and lost about 1 minute.
Didn't learn from my mistake and rushed a bit out of 1. Plan was to go South until I could see the fence corner, turn right down the gully through the green and then turn left into the control. I knew I had gone a bit left so when I hit the fence I decided to cross it and run down to the corner on the more open side but I was much closer to the corner than I thought and almost ran on SE away from the corner. Saw the corner just in time and headed in pretty much on the line from 3 to 2.
The slog up the hill from 2-3 slowed me down enough to get my act together. I continued to struggle up the hills but felt very secure navigationally for the rest of the course.
Caught Phil at 8. Initially I thought he was running 15-16 because he was heading towards me. I was surprised he had got that far through the course as I didn't think I had started that late but he turned around and followed me into 8.
Saw ShotRat pussyfooting down the hill towards 9 and started to sledge him about his pace but realised even he couldn't be that slow so asked if he had done an ankle which he had (again). Brief feelings of guilt as I ran away wondering if I should have shown more concern but I realised he was still heading away from the finish so thought it couldn't be too bad.
Came into 9 and saw Harry bounding up to it from below. Caught him at 10 where tRicky also appeared and I set off down the hill in front. I enjoyed the next little loop through 11-14. Harry came past briefly up the hill past the dam but once at the top it was flat enough for me to be able to enjoy running hard and trying to be clean enough to get a gap on the others. I wasn't really aware of tRicky and Harry after 12 and switched my focus to Cameron and Wayne who I could now see ahead.
Eventually caught Cameron and Wayne at 15 after the long slog across the paddock. Most of the time I made on Cameron was at the fence crossing where I thought he must have got caught on the barbed wire but apparently he couldn't decide where to cross after seeing a spider web on the fence.
The hill climb to 16 was a battle. I really wanted to walk but I couldn't let Wayne and Cameron run away from me so I kept reminding myself it was the last hill and battled on. Cameron went left at the end and lost a little time while Wayne followed me to the right. I tried to pick up the pace when we got to the top and then pushed hard on the way to the last taking the track around the top of the hill to the left. Absolutely buggered at the end but it was fun to feel like I was racing in the second half.
Orienteering26:02 [2] 3.14 km (8:18 / km) +128m6:54 / km shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280
Training at Hill Park Dale mostly for Kellie's benefit. Warm up exercise following a wiggly line up to the top of the hill where the second exercise started. Lost touch with the line a little bit a couple of times but got back on track easily enough.
Orienteering32:44 [3] 3.7 km (8:51 / km) +74m8:03 / km shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280
Putting out tapes for the second exercise which was just a short course which was supposed to be mostly downhill but didn't really feel like it. Found this quite difficult. Had a couple of times when I wished I had kept better contact but I think I got the tapes in the right place. One minor stack where I kind of did a slow motion somersault giving myself a few little cuts and bruises but nothing serious.
Running46:15 [4] 10.13 km (4:34 / km) +88m4:23 / km shoes: Nike Free 3.0 V5
Started out quite fast because it was raining a bit and I felt quite good. Faded a bit up the hills and never felt as good in the second half but increased the effort a bit anyway.
Running45:10 [3] 9.84 km (4:36 / km) +11m4:34 / km shoes: Nike Free 3.0 V5
Bumped into Daniel at the Thomas St lights (actually he pushed me in the back) and ran with him down to UWA. He had a tennis lesson on Saturday and ran a 5k in 19:20 on Sunday so seems to be coping with his cancer treatment ok. He was setting a pretty fast pace and I'm not good at slowing down so the whole run was a bit harder than I intended. Didn't feel too bad but still just a bit tired.