Easter 2010 - Middle DIstance WRE
Absolutely miserable. I had nothing in the tank today and struggled to get around the course. Looking at my routes, I was actually orienteering pretty well in the first half and handled the first tricky section of low-visibility rock detail without any major disasters, but my bad shape caught up with me after I tried to stay with Robbie Preston on 10-11. I was obviously running out of my comfort zone and lost control on the way to 12. I ended up low and had to fight uphill through the dark green and up massive rocks. This cost me 5 (!!) minutes and took all the will to fight out of me. I really struggled the rest of the way and left more time at 16 - I was in the right place but had no confidence at all and assumed I was wrong. Feeling very embarrassed and frustrated when I finished. This was my worst-ever WRE, worse than the WOC qual in the Ukraine that featured an 11-minute mistake and the Portugal O-Meeting where I was puking before, during, and after the "race." I can honestly say that there were no positives to take away from this day.
Julian won in an amazing 35:33, nearly four minutes ahead of Shep, and 8 minutes ahead of Robbie in 4th place.
I should add that the course was great, with nice changes of pace between the difficult rock and the faster open stuff, and I would have loved to run this course when I was in better shape.
In the evening we went over to Jules' and Felicity's place fir a barbecue (amazingly, my first in Oz) and hung out with a large chunk of the Australian under-30 orienteering crowd. It was great to meet a bunch of orienteers whom I knew mainly through AP or Shep's stories and to see some old friends. A really nice atmosphere, and a great bunch of people. I'd love to see the US under-30 O-crowd to expand to this size - big enough to have strong competitive fields, but still small enough to feel like a family.
Results:
http://results.orienteering.asn.au/?sd=1270252800&...
QR:
http://www.dxdeluxe.se/linnekartparmen/show_map.ph...