orienteering race (WC middle) 1:26:57 [2] 4.0 km (21:44 / km) +235m 16:48 / km
shoes: Inov8 Oroc spikes
Hoo boy, this was impressively disastrous...although it was pretty neat that elites running the Oceania middle champs would be running the same course as the WC teams, it was slightly disconcerting to realise that as almost-last starter of the plebs and almost-certainly slowest thereof, I would rapidly be overrun by WC competitors. So I was excited when I started but also perhaps more nervous than I realised (after 2 hours in quarantine in close proximity to world champions).
And on the way to the second control I managed to make the largest mistake of the past 5? 10? years! Tash passed me partway through the leg and I knew that I was a little to the right of her line but not that we were both right of the line that we wanted. In this junky terrain - impossible for me to run through because I am biomechanically incompetent - I was too busy watching where I was putting my feet and just didn't pay enough attention to my compass. So even though the hillside below me seemed steeper than expected and I tried to correct back towards the left, I obviously failed at doing so. And having crossed the creek and gone uphill looking for a boulder above a small gully, I found a boulder which the men were punching, no gully, and no other rocks which I could make match the vicinity of the control circle.
That's because I was nowhere near the control circle. In fact, as I eventually worked out (bit slow on the uptake am I) I was about 300m SE of it, nearly to no. 5 :( and with a dawning sense of disbelief, slowly made my way back past 4 and 3 to 2, hoping I wouldn't meet any WC runners coming the other way. Lauren started 20 min after me and I saw her punching 2 just as I finally found it! I seriously contemplated just slinking back to the finish because of the shame involved in running through the arena passage in the midst of the WC field, but decided that this would be my punishment for such inattention. As all the women up to (eventually, by the end of the course, Lizzie) passed me I was wishing that I'd paid more attention to the WC start list and lamenting that I wouldn't be able to see them finish, and hoping that at the arena passage someone wouldn't tap me on the shoulder and say "Oi you, get out! You're not supposed to be getting in the way of the competitors!".
I actually quite liked the final part of the course in the green sheoaks; although I started looking too early on 14, I found 16 more cleanly than Jasmine did. Was getting pretty tired and hungry by the end though.