Orienteering race 2:45:00 [4] 18.2 km (9:04 / km) +535m 7:54 / km
shoes: VJ Sticky
NOL and WOC trial long distance race. Not a terrible run technically but fairly slow and then the whole thing fell apart when I bonked in the final loop, lost all ability to navigate and had to pull out. I started okay running pretty steadily through to #5, with just a little hesitation on #4. Took a while to look at the map for #6 and eventually decided on straight, attacking from the track north of the control. This went swimmingly until I made the same error as at the Easter long race and started navigating to a different control! In this case it was #12 and on the way to #6 so it wasn't a complete failure but I reckon it was worth a couple of minutes. Got to #6 at the same time as Brian and Matt Parton. We all took slightly different routes but got to #7 (1st gel) about the same time and then they took off and I dropped off behind them. Unfortunately, I then mucked up #8 (2min) and #9 (1min) and robw caught up. He proceeded to drop me up the next hill, then we were together again at #11, and then he dropped me for good. I dropped a little time on #13 (2nd gel) and #14 but I was pretty steady from here through to the spectator. Physically I was feeling good except that my hamstrings had been threatening to cramp and this was slowing me down a lot in thicker forest. Unfortunately, shortly after the spectator things went south. I started to get light headed and hungry, and my comprehension of the map and terrain started to fade. I lost 1min on #25 and never found #26. In the end it was a nutrition plan failure that got me and right at the end which was frustrating. More gels and few more kms in training and I would have done okay.
