Victorian Relays at Eppalock South. Back in the day, the Eppalock areas (along with Lyell Forest) were places I went in pursuit of the fast-terrain holy grail of a kilometre rate starting with a 4. Today would have been a good day for that in terrain which was fast even by this area's standards (in fact it would surprise me if Bryan went close to or under 4.5).
My days of running kilometre rates starting with a 4 are over (except on the streets), but I was hoping to get one starting with a 5 and did. Two long legs early; on my own fairly quickly after the start (not sure how much was speed and how much was route choice), but eventually got into the eclectic second group, which at various stages comprised myself, Tash, Aston, Simon Rouse and one of the Goonans; I filled my usual function in such groups of being the slowest but the most accurate. We split after the sequence of short legs 6-10, with Tash getting ahead a bit, although I saw a bit of Simon at various stages. Had my first wobble of the day on the way to the last control, drifting a bit low, which cost me enough time (maybe 15 seconds) to place Aston within run-me-down-in-the-chute range, an opportunity he accepted with open arms. 8 down on Kez and Eon, probably a slightly better-than-par result for me these days. Good to feel like I was racing, although still feel questionable on such hills as the area had.
This is the first time I've seen much of Aston in competition. He's technically confident in detail and I liked that he was prepared to make his own decisions in a pack situation (reminds me a bit of a
previous tussle with a junior of similar age who went on to bigger and better things), but sometimes had trouble holding a line in vaguer country.
I took off pretty quickly afterwards to make the start of the World Cup final (a mission accomplished with 30 seconds to spare), so I don't know where my team ended up - although as I was its only member under 60 (Ted and Russell being the others) I'm not expecting miracles.