orienteering race (Keithcot Farm sprint) 17:36 [4] 2.4 km (7:20 / km)
shoes: New Balance
Finally the weekend arrived, about which I had been stressing all week in terms of how to arrange ferrying assorted family members around and whether there would be any problems with the NOL races. May even have had a few nerves of my own before racing because I definitely felt lactic and sluggish. Apart from looking behind the wrong bush for the first control and behind the wrong retaining wall in the south part of the school where Kay was lurking on control-guard, I was happy with navigation/route choice and being able to read the buildings okay. Robin made good use of a pretty tight school area.
orienteering race (Para Wirra middle) 47:48 [4] 4.9 km (9:45 / km)
shoes: new Olways
The worst part of the day was having to kill 4 hours between events on a stinking hot day. The best part was the Arrows team photo where we managed to assemble 18 people on a BBQ (admittedly a big one - see OASA home page).
The middle distance chasing start format worked really well, as far as I can tell. I got a bit confused belting down to the lake and thought I was too far left when I was too far right already, recovered and chased after Wendy and Cath. Rachel wasn't far behind me up the next hill. From 2 the course split to go either left or right; the problem was that when looking for number 3 on the map, the 3 of number 13 (also number 7) stood out much more obviously...I had only dropped a couple of contours before I caught on but apparently others made it all the way down the hill to the drinks control.
Up the hill to 3 (left loop), I realised that I'd have to climb right up till it flattened out, but Cath/Wendy were looking lower on the spur, saw Laurina at 3, down the hill to 4, lost Wendy up the next hill, saw Rachel at the drinks control, up the next hill I figured out that I needed to be high so got ahead of Cath/Laurina, the next one I was too high so they got ahead of me, back to the drinks, then a looong slog up the road and over the hill towards the lake.
By now the hard ground under my shoes (new Olways, without my orthotics in them), was really aggravating the neuroma in my foot so I quickly rolled on the road and crunched my back. Little by little I slipped benind the others (hard to run when your toes feel like they're broken) but then I started getting glimpses of Vanessa up ahead - her knee must truly have been giving her hell - and after the spectator control I had her/Cath/Laurina in my sights but wasn't going to catch them, obviously.
Thought I handled the heat pretty well, wished I could have run a couple min faster if my foot didn't hurt. got back to town and it was 35 degrees, just couldn't cool down. Really had to force myself to eat pasta for tea and dreaded the thought of getting up at 5 am.