rogaining race (Vic Champs Korweinguboora) 4:00:00 [3] 16.0 km (15:00 / km)
shoes: Asics GT-2000
I did not sleep that well in my cosy tent, listening to the wind roaring in the trees around the oval all night and hoping that none of them were falling on rogainers out in the forest. Also did not get going as early as I'd intended to (takes a while to put soggy O gear back on, and breakfast is a trap) and we finally headed out about 7:30am, with the goal of getting to some higher points beyond the pine forest on the western side of the map, but soon realised that with slow going through the young pines and some marshy creek crossings, this was unrealistic although with another hour to spare we'd have been fine. Rearranged the planned route to include control 40, the 40th-anniversary-of-Vic-Champs commemorative control on top of a knoll with port & lamingtons at it, and finished via the mineral spring (water tasted rather rusty) and a bonus swampy-creek control which we were glad to have allowed extra time for (saw Peter & Ewan here; they'd got in at nearly midnight which is not bad for a nearly-13 year old, and they won the family category with 1500 points) but we still ended up finishing with 20 min to spare.
Also ended up with 1800 points, just over half that available on course. Winners, Jon & Andrew, just cracked over 3000. Winning women's were just over 2400 and winning mixed just under 2400. So I do feel that even if we had slowed down in the night, as I definitely would have done, it ought to have been possible to get another 600 points if we'd stayed out all night. Truthfully though, my brain & legs were trying to convince me that I had done so anyway - and I'm not sure how well I would have coped with simultaneously trying to focus on night navigation which it sounds as though a lot of teams struggled with, although we might have been ok because Blair's bearings are great (even with the 9.5 degrees difference between grid & magnetic north lines that the organisers hadn't bothered to draw on the map) - just like Steve Cooper's - and lifting my legs over vegetation. Probably need to do some proper training in the terrain before next tackling a Vic rogaine!