Run race ((orienteering)) 1:14:47 [4] *** 12.0 km (6:14 / km) +430m 5:17 / km
spiked:24/26c
SA Championships at Barossa Range - 2010 Australian Long Championships map (although we used the southern section, i.e. not the most challenging steep bushy slopes). Unlike last year, there was no doing a Bradbury today; it was an entirely predictable set of results (a big win to Simon, and me a couple of minutes ahead of Jim for second), with the only mild surprise being that Rory McComb got closer to the placings than expected - chasing me around a chunk of the course wouldn't have hurt.
Took a bit of time to get into gear and was a little awkward on the steep side slopes at 1 and 2 (the steepest terrain on the course as it turned out), but settled down after the big climb at 4. A lot of the course after that was pretty easy; lots of paddock running, sometimes with tricky controls at the end of it, sometimes not, and not particularly steep. It was very enjoyable running but not especially challenging. The last part of the course got steeper and more technical (though still in the yellow). I made an annoying 30-seconder in the circle at 24, then pushed hard on the next leg (a 12-contour climb) because I thought it was my best chance of getting a split off Simon (I didn't).
There was a bit of post-event grumbling about the courses, but I think the women had more cause to do it than we did; assuming that there was a reason not to use the northern section, the main improvement to ours would have been to make more use of the rocky areas, perhaps through a second map, rather than nothing legs in the paddocks to get the distance in.
A reasonably solid run and 11 minutes down on Simon is probably about a par result. No injury issues during the race, but it was a different story going home - my intermittent sitting-down lower back-hamstring soreness flared up almost immediately on leaving the event area, whereupon I knew it was going to be a long 750 kilometres. (Naturally, I was totally shocked to find other orienteers at a bakery in close proximity to the venue after the event).