Run race ((orienteering)) 52:53 [3] *** 5.1 km (10:22 / km)
spiked:22/25c
NOL middle at Broulee Dunes. I expected it to be green, flat and technical; it was certainly technical, and green in places, but focused on the coastal strip where there was plenty of detail - a very interesting area to run in and well worth the effort of those who've come to it. (I suspect this may be the biggest event that the ACT has staged outside of national carnivals, with over 400 starters; certainly the biggest since the 1980s).
Outside the chasing start, people were in random order at 30 second intervals. I got a bit of a surprise at the first control to swallow the three in front of me (Ben, Gareth and Jim), but was never going to last long against them - indeed Gareth and Jim both went on to have good runs of their own - and Grant (1 minute) was through me by #3. Settled down and actually felt like I was running to compete and not just to finish, as has been the case for most of my events for the last couple of years. Dropped about 1.5 minutes on #9 after going almost to the circle and not seeing it, and a couple of times came out into the open a bit further away from the control than I'd planned on (and a couple more times later on, was grateful to see the flag when I wasn't quite sure where I was), but in general I was pretty happy with this - quite close to the 50% behind benchmark which I'd consider respectability (Aston was in the 33s) and actually beat people this time. Certainly my best event physically this year, so another sign of progress.