orienteering race (Mack Creek badge event) 1:20:10 [4] 8.4 km (9:33 / km)
shoes: new Olways
It was raining and 10 degrees when I got to Mack Creek, so I didn't wear my glasses but didn't need them for a 1:10 000 map. Parked on the hilltop in the SW corner, start was about 1.5km down the road, first control was on a stile a further 200m down the road, next 2km loop was possibly the moderate course under another name. After punching the fence crossing control again (BTW, I thought that the controls where the numbers are vertical on the stands are no longer legal?) the course got more physical and technical and there was a good mix of singletrack/open runing and steep up & over hills. More than once when dropping down a hillside into a control my bearing wavered slightly and I ended up in the wrong place along the line of rocks, which accounted for maybe a minute on 9 and 30 sec on 19. Overran 15 which was a mound next to the track, and veered a bit right going down to the drinks at 18, and left the track at the wrong fence bend on the way to 19 so climbed an unnecessarily green spur, but these were minor things.
Last year's SA champs I did 82 for 9km so this was slower - but my hamstrings were very tight/fatigued today (crouching on the floor for 4 hours washing walls will do that to you) and I thought I did well to maintain some sort of fluency through the scrub - and also I think we had proportionally less track running options today. And I enjoyed the bush/course more than I had expected to, so that's all right. Legs were hammered afterwards though.