orienteering race (Collins Creek Hagaby) 1:41:39 [4] 10.5 km (9:41 / km)
shoes: Inov8 Oroc spikes
It's always fun to finish off a carnival with a wet day, right? I doubt anyone was particularly inspired as we huddled in cars waiting for the rain to ease before squelching to the assembly area (does anyone know if that Impreza has made it back across the creek yet?) but having a well-set mass start loop race made a potentially diabolical area into something almost enjoyable, and I'd venture to suggest that lantana is easier to run through when wet than dry (also when properly mapped - the vegetation was quite reliable on this map).
Hard to quantify how well I did or didn't run, as with a small field and 3 dissimilar-distanced loops with a common pivot control halfway through each, I'd see others coming into and out of controls, but rarely on the same leg as me. Having hanging control flags made them often easier to spot, and I read the termite mounds fairly well mostly. First loop I did cleanly, second loop I was too far right on the first control then ended up going all the way to/around by the fence on 3-4, hardly a necessary detour. Dropped a bit low on 4 also. On 3rd loop I started to run out of legs, and coming over the hill heading S looking for a depression went rather more SW and bounced off a control from a previous loop. Finished this one as Anna & Aislinn were chasing each other into the finish; slightly demoralising, but I was excited to catch a glimpse of Zoe & Rachel W coming out of the first control on the last loop as I went into it - then I bounced off the access track we'd walked in by, and had to have another go at it, so lost them for good.
So, errors could have totalled as much as 8 min, but I sort of enjoyed the challenge, and the absence of grass seeds. And the whole week, actually, but I wish I could get back to being faster again.