rogaining race (Minigaine) 2:53:36 [3] 25.0 km (6:57 / km)
shoes: Asics Gel 2160
Wow, this seemed tough for something so easy. I was a bit feverish, feeling about as flat as the proverbial pancake/tack and for much of it struggled to catch my breath or keep up with Zara. A warmish, slightly humid afternoon and I hadn't drunk enough because you can't with a sore throat. But we won, so it was all worth it :)
Hash House was at Hazelwood Park and the map, for 3 hours, not much smaller than the 6-hour metrogaine a few years ago; it even included Mt Lofty Summit, which I knew was about 70 min running to get there by even the most direct route, so we ruled that out straight away. The course setting, by the scouts, had a few impractical route choices, dead-end legs, and gaps where controls could have been strategically placed. Also it gave me an opportunity to complain about how I hate Q&A controls (ironically, the one plate control with an actual punch, was the one which they forgot to credit us with the points for when calculating the results).
Anyway, we worked out that sticking to the flat entirely was about 20km, and that it wasn't worth going up into the hills, apart from a 50 and 60 above Beaumont (hard slog up, but running down was twice as fast) and that we needed a little extra to fill our 3 hours so added a 70 in a creek bottom in Horsnell Gully, for which we dropped our small packs and ran in-and-out. I really struggled around the 100 minute mark slogging gently up Glen Osmond Rd, when I realised that I probably hadn't run for longer than this since the March twilightgaine, but thankfully my last-minute adrenaline kicked in at the top of Beaumont as I had hoped and we got back to the Hash House with 6 min to spare - considered going for 20pts along Waterfall Gully Rd but may then have been more than 2 min late. Teams which went all the way to Mt Lofty were much later than that :(
We had 790pts, just over half the available points. Impressive on 690 were the 15-year old junior boys, Aiden Sullivan & Will Kennedy, who came second overall!