orienteering race (South Para) 1:21:57 [3] 6.0 km (13:40 / km) +230m 11:28 / km
shoes: Inov8 X-Talon bluegreen
I wasn't sure, from Ruhi's description of the courses having been set as middle-distance style because of fire regrowth & felling, whether this meant that they would be shorter to avoid the crap or because it's all really crappy...Leg of Mutton was always the nicest section of the South Para map, being closest to the reservoir and with more open forest with actual rocks, so I remembered it quite fondly from about 15 years ago.
Today only about 15% of it was as nice as I remembered, but the rest was still fun in an "I like low-vis green navigation because it brings everyone else back to my level" kind of way and I didn't mind fighting through the young wattles because they're still much less painful than yakka. And once I got into Irena's mapping style, wasn't too far off on most of the rock features, plus I kept seeing John & AK and this kept me running harder than I otherwise would have. Very glad though that the last thing I did before starting was to eat a banana - and afterwards I required TWO sausages from the junior squad BBQ.
edit: I've just dug out my map from the 2000 SA champs on South Para where the 10.8km course took me 149 min, and as I recall, when I finished and the course planner bounced up to me cheerfully asking how I'd liked it, I may have sworn at him...