Orienteering race 33:23 [4] 4.68 km (7:08 / km) +144m 6:11 / km
shoes: VJ Bolds - Yellow
JK Relay - Beaudesert
5th
Running 1st leg for ESOC team with Jo Stevenson and Rona.
Started out steadily as all the juniors sprinted off the start line, but hit my number 1 in the lead. Took a very wiggly route to 2 as I didn't want to leave the path as the forest looked gross so ended up behind everyone.
Then messed up 4 soo badly. Dropped too far right and ended up searching all the green blobs in the open area. Didn't even realise we were in the open as there were trees everywhere. Initially thought I might have stopped on the spur too early but finally figured out we were too low and trudged up the hill to find the control just behind Alice. Losing 3mins in the process... :(
Rest of the course went fine. Worked well with Alice and felt like we were making some progress, but every time we got close to the pack in front it seemed like they had a shorter split and got away again. Absolutely lost the will to continue trudging back up the hill to the final few controls. Breathing started to go and was completely struggling to get any oxygen whilst slipping backwards in all the mud. Found a slight second wind when we reached the runnable field at the top to make sure I outsprinted Alice and Kayla, handing over in 11th place (3:42mins behind, but only 1:26 behind 3rd).
Jo has an absolute flyer with the fastest 2nd leg time to send Rona out in 3rd place!!! But up against very tough opponents with Jess, Holly, Tessa and Meg! Rona had a great run to finish in 5th place, only 40secs off 3rd place!!