Orienteering race 33:27 [5] ***** 2.3 km (14:33 / km) +125m 11:26 / km
spiked:12/19c
Stage 3 Sacred Girls
From the sublime to the ridiculous, was messing up big time in the school parts of the map - seeing gaps where they weren't and vice versa, and loosing time all over the show. I never thought I'd say this but I wonder if Sacred Hearts in particular and one or two spots in Napier Girls are actually TOO complex for orienteering? I might be a bit more positive had the weather been a bit more user friendly, having glasses that don't really fog is pointless when they're covered in droplets about the mapped size of the gateways etc that you're trying to spot. The long route choice legs from 12 to 17 were fun (including keeping up with John Robertson et al on the long haul down Shakespeare Road - gravity is the slow runner's friend!) and I reckon I made the right call on all of them, just hit the wall on the way up to 17. Which may explain some very strange behaviour getting into 18 despite having checked out how it looked on the ground on my way to 17....
Orienteering 20:18 [5] **** 2.4 km (8:27 / km) +35m 7:53 / km
spiked:17/21c
Stage 4 Hereworth
A bit of redemption following this morning's mess, I seem to be showing a preference for the afternoon races. Feeling quick, flowing and mostly accurate on the 'old' part of the map. There were mistakes but 3 of them were very minor - as for the 4th, unfortunately I only read enough of the control description for #11 to eliminate one of the three ways of interpreting the map (having only seen the two wrong ways) so ended up briefly in a relatively deep dead end wondering why there wasn't a control there. In theory I should have enjoyed the last part of the course in Hereworth proper, especially as there were no somehow no mistakes in that section, but I had very much run out of gas, and my glasses had finally got wet enough to demonstrate that yes they do in fact fog occasionally so I somehow got through those last few legs on jedi navigation.