Training Log Archive: Craney

At Pittwater dunes - just came out on top after a great fun higgledy piggledy race.

The first 2 loops were quite heavily gaffled and I found myself completely alone after #3 - not quite what I expected. It was through the really fun runnable forested intricate section, so I capitalised on the chance just to do my own thing and was very clean. Turned out I popped out after the two loops (3.1km) with a fairly handy (~1min?) lead.

Then onto the long 7.5km ungaffled loop. Maybe the realisation that I was in the lead played on my mind, but I made fairly hefty mistakes on #2 and #4 through simply not paying enough attention to the detail on the map - heart sank when I spotted the flag at #4 along with the train of chasers coming into it. Punched that in about 6th then set off with Jacob straight through the open to #5, which caught a bit on the leaders. Got up to 3rd on Simon's back on the way to #6 but the vague nav caught me out as it started to dawn on me that Simon was actually now halfway to #7! D'oh. Retreated back to #6, punching that in 8th place presumably around 1.30mins behind.

So ensued a long section of about 4kms picking off Jacob, Ian, Kez and Robert whilst gradually closing on the three leaders (Simon, Leon and Felix) - fortunately the long path legs meant I was able to keep good sight of where they were. At the spectator control I finally got onto them and a brief hesitation from Simon at the next control meant I was able to punch first with just five very short legs to finish. Reverting back to proper navigation was tricky, but I got #20 and #21 well. We all were a touch confused at #22 by the extra trees, but I saw the flag first and managed to just stay ahead through to the finish. Much fun.