orienteering race (Day 1 Diddleum) 52:52 [4] 4.9 km (10:47 / km)
shoes: new Olways
From the start it was down, down, down, through eucalypt plantations to a narrow spur so overgrown with tree ferns that I overshot it, then got confused about how many gullies I had crossed, and relocated off a track out the other side. Al caught me here, we both overshot number 3 and Sus caught us, it was up, up, up and over the hill but when I got to the bottom I got confused about which track I was on and started looking for the control off a bend on the wrong track, about 400m too soon.
Then south along the river and out into the open; how hard can it be to find a control out here when you can see the person in front of you? Well, the organisers had done an incredibly good job of hiding the controls from sight while managing to put them in exactly the right spot. I looked on the wrong creek end for number 7 and Laurina caught me, I kept seeing her at the next few controls despite different route choices but she got away from me up the hill before the finish.
From my second-last control I looked up, saw a control 200m away from me and just ran across the paddock to it. Pity it wasn't actually the last control, but one on another course. Consequently the first thing Blair said to me when I walked into the OA AGM that afternoon was "What were you doing at the finish this morning?" and I realised everyone had seen me go to the wrong control. Again.
Probably lost about 6-7 min which means I was running faster than I was navigating.
running (cataract gorge) 21:00 [2]
shoes: New Balance
Needed to loosen up before the race so took the ZigZag track (most of it was walking) and back along the gorge path.