Running warm up/down 10:12 [1] 1.42 km (7:11 / km)
easy jog with Roar to the start.. legs feeling good but pace very easy so..
Orienteering 1:12:39 [4] *** 9.67 km (7:31 / km) +330m 6:25 / km
spiked:13/15c shoes: Inov8 X-Talons
Started with a french lad 9secs behind me, ignored him and ran on. We both spiked no.1 and 2 at a slow pace on the climb.. To 3, i cut my hand and stupidly let him get away, was annoyed at myself and only walked the climb to 3. For 4, i decided my legs were going to struggle today and just avoided the hill by hitting the path and marsh. On the long leg to 5, i was once again slow but happy with route-choice and good spike. To 6 okay, 7 very bad line out, concentrating on 2 other guys stupidly but also messed up the control very badly in the circle losing approx. 3 or 4mins. Once again annoyed, i didnt read map and lost about 3mins on the short no.8.
At 8, i saw the most epic orienteering ever! About 30 M14's were tanking it *THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION* every single one of them spiked the control and they were punching at ultra-speed with only one punch at the control before legging it the same way as me down to the marsh. But while i was slow with my hand and being cautious of it they were jumping of 2m crags and doing army rolls out of it before getting up to tank it again! They were reading the map while in mid air and some were doing 360's and stuff.. I honestly wanted to just quit my course and join them.. it looked like more fun then i could ever possibly imagine. <- This is why i Orienteer! :D
Anyways, back to no. 9 :P.. i ran across the marsh, a train of about 4 m18's had caught me, and we struggled acroos the only tough marsh i saw this week. I actually sank down to my hips at one point and was stuck for about 20secs as others ran by. Contoured around hill and spike. To 10, through houses and to the control which a lot of people seemed to converge on. Down to 11, grand. I took the lower route-choice to 12, I was happy with the route but was slow and took a lot of drinks.. Marcus seemed to prefer the higher route- it is a toughie though and i am unsure.. I knew i had to run hard to 13 to gain places as it was the last control that you could really catch much on, so i pushed and navigated well in with an uber-spike at the end.. passing 2 other 18's.. i kept this and navigated well to the last few before passing another pair on the way to the last and on the run-in. I was happy with this as it meant on the last day i only dropped 2 places, which could've been a lot worse.
I lost approx. 6 or 7mins out there and wasn't happy plus i felt very sluggish.. and just watched some 18's go past me. I think if this race had come a day or 2 earlier I might have been able to do sub-60 pretty comfortably.. This would have been very good as the winner did 54 but i think he must have had mistakes as he did 55 for 800m longer the 1st day in more physical terrain with more .. Still it will do
Also finished 2secs behind Conor and 1min behind Cillin.. but this didn't bother me..