orienteering race (Ballarat Grammar) 14:50 [4] 2.7 km (5:30 / km)
shoes: Asics GT-2000
Between the races it was a struggle to keep warm but I remembered and located a cafe I'd liked in March 2012 (it turned out to have a great little shop next door selling handmade baby goods/toys so I was able to find a gift for the friend I intended to visit on Sunday afternoon, who conveniently happens to now live in the same suburb which Blair has moved into) and also had a spare hour after arriving at the grammar school for the afternoon's race so shivered my way to the supermarket and procured dinner ingredients, not realising that the place to be was the heated ladies' changerooms!
Race was fun, and flat, and I did run into a dead end on the way to the first control, plus missed a gap and went too wide (via 11) on the way from 4 to 5, but felt that I was doing a pretty good job of reading ahead and working backwards from the end of the leg. 8-9 (a leg which the men had in reverse; I think it was their 4-5) looked to be a messy route, especially with the narrow gate hiding behind the bins - and I looked for a southern option out along the main road but didn't identify a way back in. The western gate would have been it, in hindsight. Anyway, Bridget started a minute behind me and finally got past when the course opened out towards the end. I was sorry that the technical part finished so soon, because the last 700m on tired legs as Bridget vanished into the distance was rather a struggle.