Orienteering race 1:51:00 [4] 10.4 km (10:40 / km) +220m 9:39 / km
Australian championships (classic) near Jerangle - amazing terrain, really quite wild, rocky and tough - probably some of the best terrain I have been in for a really long time, it felt kind of special.
Still not feeling on top form (fighting off a bug I think, and not enough sleep/too much work over the last few weeks). Had a great run with no big mistakes just a couple of hesitations up until the long leg.... where I went a bit of a wander. In the end, I relocated off number 6 - I genuinely had no idea that I was in that part of the map, which is a bit worrying. When I looked at the map after finishing, it turned out I had (wrongly) relocated off a pond, in actual fact I was bang on my compass bearing and the red line, but I had convinced myself that I wasn't... I hadn't found a good point to take my gel before the long leg, which was probably the start of the mistake, as I was also getting a bit hot and tired.
Ended up loosing at least 11 minutes here, ran with Kathryn for a couple of controls and then lost some more time at the top of a hill where I just couldn't make the map fit.
Eventually finished, but disappointed with the mistakes. Ended up 19th, a long long way back on time. Think 95 to 96 would have been a good run for me today. In general, I survived the area reasonably well, and I also didn't freak out about the snakes so all good there. Almost disappointed not to see one, as loads of people did.
No British Champs result to compare to for this one as we didn't go to the British Long (had enough of travelling down south and it was just after Rob's heart procedure).
Shame not to be able to stay in Canberra for the week, but a fun weekend.