Orienteering race (State Long Distance Champ) 58:26 [4] 7.07 km (8:16 / km) +150m 7:28 / km
3rd again but this time Eoin and Noel in 1st and 2nd place.
Correctly guessed the general idea for the 1st legs from the position of the start and that there would be an up and over, across or down and around route. Decided to go for the down and around as it looked straight forward and not too physical - was chasing Ken Post down the paddock and cut in higher than Ken and contoured across to the control and arrived at the same time, very pleased to see Noel approaching from above as he had started 2 minutes before me and I have been sledging him at the start that I would catch him and them stick to him. Missed the control as was confused by some other rock, maybe unmapped lower down and lost at least a minute. Left the control with Noel 300m ahead but in sight chased hard and spiked 3 along the contour with Noel and Ken coming in from below. Lead the charge through 4 and took them both low and around the control. #5 I was too low again and the others beat me to the control and I had to chase hard along the track to 6 and caught them at 7 when they slowed in the bush, punch 8 first and Digby had joined the party by this time. I took the track route past the shed to 10 and was surprised when I looked back that the others were not on my tail, arrived above 10 to see Ken and Digby punching and no sign of Noel - bugger! (Splits show I lost 45 sec)
Confused out of 10 and followed the tracks and could see Ken in the distance, took a safe route, I thought, around the tracks to the knoll and expected to drop onto the control, caught a sight of Noel leaving the area but it was too think with parrot bush and lots of little rock dumps and no attack point so bumbled around for a bit and lost another couple of minutes.
Tried hard to make up the time across the paddock to the time but was 20 sec behind Noel at the end.
Good fun race - thanks to Peter K, Dave Pass & Juffy for a good map and course.