orienteering race (NOL long Transit Flat) 2:22:28 [3] 8.3 km (17:10 / km)
shoes: Inov8 Oroc spikes
Early morning, cold morning. We were the first to arrive at the event (same assembly area as World Cup Jan 2015, and for some reason again I thought west was east and vice versa) and my toes were still numb after the 1.3km climb to the start, so I was very unco down the first hill (Nicola had caught me 3 min just on running speed by the end of a 350m leg) and never really got much better even when I'd warmed up. Could only jog at best, and only when I wasn't bum-sliding over huge logs, skirting rockfaces and trawling through bracken. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy the course; there were no really long legs but the shorter ones still had route choice, especially up the whacking great hill where Jo passed me going at about 3 times my pace. The control sites did often seem quite simple though but that may have been because I was going so slowly, and couldn't even muster a jog by the end. Did the rogaine really take that much out of me?
Anyway, the worst part of the course was the taped marsh-crossing, where at the main channel point I sank to both knees in the mud so backed up and tried again, this time having put my map/compass/SI stick in pocket and clinging to the ti-tree which promptly took a piece out of my hand and flicked my map into the stream. As I retrieved it I saw my SI stick floating so I picked that up too, felt my pocket for my compass which wasn't there and then hunted in the water - thankfully it wasn't fast-flowing and compasses don't sink!
We made it back to the airport in plenty of time for a 5:20pm flight - thanks to Anna & Blair for the weekend's driving - and I was so tired that I didn't even really mind getting only another 2 x snacks for dinner from Qantas. Did mind hobbling my way through 3 different airports; foot wasn't great :( Still not sure whether my participation in this weekend's races was truly worth it to the Arrows, but from a personal point of view I quite enjoyed them, catching up with some Tas people I don't normally see - and hope the organisers felt that their efforts were worthwhile.