orienteering race (long distance) 1:21:17 [4] 10.5 km (7:44 / km) +340m 6:40 / km
shoes: new Olways
Kowen East, AKA Felled Timbers, across the road from Sparrow Hill. Pine forest with small rocks, so much like Wirra Wirra that I kept expecting to see the transmitter tower to the north. (Will be a while before those pines are tall enough to run through again though.)
Short leg from the start and I reminded myself to be careful but should have followed the vegetation boundary rather than a sloppy bearing, lost 40 sec? Read the wrong control no from my descriptions at 2 (had folded #1 over because they wouldn't fit) and came back 20 sec later! 3 wasn't actually on a thicket as mapped, it was on a logpile, which was confusing. After that I settled into a routine and stopped looking over my shoulder for Lauren to catch me 2 min. The long downhill leg to 4 was good fun though I followed the line of native scrub at the end which wasn't most efficient. At 7 I could not find the distinct tree on my map, only the rocks, but I saw it on the ground so that was okay. Tiny clearings were hard to read, too. Don't know whether it's my eyesight or the off-white paper, but the chip out of one lens of my glasses doesn't help with focusing. Long leg to 9 I went left, happy with this decision and felt stronger up hills than yesterday. After this I really began to enjoy myself.
By the time I came through the spectator control I was flagging and I wombled slightly on the final loop (Jo set a really good course), but all up this was the cleanest strongest run of the weekend. Cradle Mtn run was finally good for something! 13th I think, 13min down on Kathryn, 10 on Susanne. (Not sure that I will ever be 1 min/km faster than I am now.)