Orienteering 2:32:48 [3] 15.5 km (9:51 / km) +700m 8:03 / km
shoes: Adidas
The first long O course in Djouce. This was an epic even if I didn't make it around the whole thing. Started out promptly and picked up 1 with no issue. To 2 the rough open was horrible and took some time to get through there. Didn't find a feature for three, I remember there used to be a wooden structure but no sign of it. Happy with 4. 5 was a loong leg and I decided to go straight. Lost a minute entering Powerscourt getting stuck in some gorse, river was pretty deep. It got ferny in Powerscourt, logs hidden beneath ferns, ow. Finally got out and hopped the two fences to the start of the climb. Ran bits of this at the start but walked most of it, strong enough. I didn't want to be burned out at the top. Finally at the top, good direction, hit my path and jogged up to 5. Easy to 6, and then coming down from 6 was crazy slippy. I was very slow here in the shoes and almost killed myself a few times. Down at the track and ran along. Down into some more horrible rough open and actually managed to slip at the perfect moment and impale my back on a gorse bush. Was unsure here due to felling/not being able to keep direction but actually found the boulder. Handy run down the track to 8, 7.5km running in, I would be getting tired soon. Good angle down the steep slope to 9, waterfall was magnificent in the rain. Then came ten. Went right of the crags which was a bad idea. Soo steep, got up eventually. Then ran along the tops of the crags and passed my path but it was all felled there and the track was indistinct. Kept running looking for it but figured i was too low so ran back up and found it, had already found it but disregarded it. Tired now after the second huge climb. Running slowly to 11 and got stuck in some windblown trees there for a few minutes. I was a hundred minutes up to here alone, 11.5km running with lots of climb.
Saw colm and we ran back to 10, then 18. Here i went off for 20, 14 and 15 to put out tags.
Great course and need more of these. Really was shattered by the end but made it strong through until 11. Good place to start. More of these and bringing some jellies out hopefully be lasting another 30 minutes strong by the end of the season. Djouce needs a bit of a remap in places, felling and that. Course was great in any case but would be so pure with an up to date map