rogaining race (Vic Champs Korweinguboora) 8:00:00 [3] 28.0 km (17:09 / km)
shoes: Asics GT-2000
So, apparently the course planners set this rogaine back in April, when it was nice and dry. That wasn't the case today, with wet feet at the very first creek crossing, wet knees at the second and then having to cross a thigh-deep creek (and immediately back again) just to punch the control, not long afterwards. But I don't mind wet shoes, and O pants/tights dry out ok. And although I'm out of practice at Contacting old-school paper maps, think I'd done an ok job of mine - although bodgied up Blair's! I do, however, struggle with lifting my legs over fallen logs (there weren't too many massive ones, and I hoped that no more trees would come down during the event, but it was really windy) and getting through bracken. Mostly it was pleasant forest, with reasonably open hillsides, but there were some junky gullies (some really mossy with an enchanted forest feel) and I tried not to think about what it could be like over the eastern side of the map at 2 in the morning.
We never got to find out though, because at about 3pm, after I had finally started to feel positive rather than apprehensive (have been just so tired the past couple of weeks that I wasn't really sure if I was up for a 24hr), and after we'd been to the Balt Camp ruins at the highest point on the map, and done a nice downhill run on the road, Blair announced that his troublesome calf was giving him grief - damn. This had kind of been pre-empted as per his AP log during the week, and so I went straight into imagining us slinking shamefully back to the HH before the 6 hr people had even finished.
He kept saying "I will just see what one more control feels like" which kind of messed with my head (and now I understand how it must have been for Zara the morning of the WRC when I was feeling too unwell to even make a decision about starting) but it did mean that we got to the Mt Hope Trig, and a 90-pointer south of there, before turning west back towards the main road south of the HH and collecting a few controls along the fast-flowing Werribee river (I chose to cross on the road bridge). - It was kind of fun to now not be in a hurry and I even stopped to talk to the 4WD campers who had definitely accessed that spot by the creek illegally, via a track which was now thoroughly churned up. Declined their offer of a beer - they were drinking VB!
Got in just on 8pm and there were sausages at the HH - oh boy, the only time I ever eat sausages is on a rogaine and it's fair to say that I made up for there having not been any food left at the finish of last year's Aust Champs. Had a lovely chat to Tania and Madeleine (who's 11) the family team who'd won the women's in the 6 hr. Oh, and we saw a wombat ambling across the track in front of us just on sunset - that made it all worthwhile :)