Training Log Archive: Craney

Came 16th at Affric North, and 6th overall. Top Aussie! Interesting format sticking a very tough long classic race with 1 min start intervals at the end of a 6 day competition. Is this fun? Well it was kind of fun in a way as there were some nice views and the terrain was quite pretty and largely devoid of nastiness. A good WOC long area. Tough going though and not really playing to my cup of tea. The dudes behind me all ran through me early on and I couldn't match their speed. I was keeping running ok and not overly tired - I just couldn't push through the constant knee high undergrowth with every footstep sinking an inch. Had a pretty clean run all up.

C • Holiday orienteering... 1

S6D - Day 6 Glen Affric - C41 - Splits

Came 4th at Affric South. Winning time 50% longer than yesterday which was unsurprising given that this forest was utter cack and the course was the same length. Late start and Speakey catching me 8mins 2/3rds round conspired to help me profit out of the circumstances. Missed #1 which was behind danger tape and mapped a bit odd. Also took a silly route to #5 off the elephant track and lost a couple more mins. Ok after that and found an extra gear once Speake found me. Holiday orienteering is more fun in most other countries.

Long run to the start for the pleasure of starting in a slightly different bit of cack compared to the rest of the cack.

S6D - Day 5 Glen Affric - C41 - Splits

Came 29th at Darnaway. Couldn't believe I was 10mins down. A bit of that due to being 1st start, some due to cocking a couple of mins on the easiest control on the course, but the rest? Just an old man I suppose. Nice runnable terrain today though so not complaining.

S6D - Day 4 Darnaway - C41 - Splits

Came 2nd at Darnaway. I had a punching start today so rocked up at the start, didn't see anyone I knew about in the start area so fast-tracked through the start boxes and away I went. Just so happened Dougie started 30secs after me and caught me at #2 after I wobbled a little. Didn't see much of him for a bit as I din't realise it was him and we took some different lines. I think we cottoned onto it at about #8 and so the rest of the course was him nailing it and me trying to hang on. Haven't orienteered at that pace for a long while, so was pleased to finish in sight of him. Made a few silly bananas along the way. He took the win and I sheepishly got 2nd. Great fun though - made what was otherwise quite an ordinary course exciting.

S6D - Day 3 Darnaway - C41 - Splits

Went to Strathpeffer, which was nice.

Came 12th at Strathfarrar. Not much fun to be had here - just as much bog as yesterday but on a steep slope with bracken bashing thrown in for good measure once you'd run 2km to the assembly after sitting in traffic for an hour. Holiday orienteering this was not. Had an ok run except for drifting wildly off the map on a long leg through climbing too much on an unmapped walking track. Good job it was open moor as I could relocate off the big features on the map way below. Bit annoying as result would've been ok otherwise.

Various.

S6D - Day 2 Strathfarrar - C41 - Splits

Came 9th at Achnagour. Pretty satisfied with that as no idea what to expect coming into this race. Went badly off line as soon as I left the first path but got into the map a bit better after that. The first bit was nice forest and I was able to run quite well. Then hit the bog at about 1/3 of the way round and urgh that felt tough. Rest of the course was basically a long flat bog trudge. Kept running but it was a slog. Lost some time (2 mins?) at a weird control in amongst some shooting targets. Looking forward to the rest of the week if my legs can acclimatise to non-spur gully and if the terrain gets less boggy.

Run to start plus a bit.

S6D - Day 1 Achagour - C41 - Splits