Run race ((orienteering)) 1:16:51 [4] **** 6.8 km (11:18 / km) +340m 9:02 / km
spiked:5/8c
You needed to be motivated for this one; a long-distance on Kooyoora which involved two crossings of the mountain, and a section in the vague green area north of the mountain, the most difficult square kilometre in Australian orienteering. I haven't competed in this area for the best part of 20 years; the only times it's been used since the new map was made was the 2002 World Masters and 2004 Victorian Championships, neither of which I ran (due to injury in the latter case). It certainly wasn't a course to take on as an afterthought after a couple of hours working on the start.
The start was pretty promising. I went right on the long first leg which I think was the better option, nailed the control, caught Reuben two minutes and then dropped him immediately when he missed 2 to the left. I hit the first five pretty well and was running steadily. 6 was the last one in the vague area. I lost contact early in the leg, thought I had it back a couple of times but couldn't make things fit, ran (as it turned out) within 20 metres of the control and then spent an age trying to make sense of the terrain and relocate a couple of hundred metres further on. In the end I dropped 12 minutes there; I think this is my worst mistake in Australia since the late 1980s.
I then dropped another 4 minutes on 8; it was in the wrong place (on the next big boulder 50 metres round) but if I'd had more confidence I wouldn't have climbed the slope thinking I was too low after hitting the place where it was supposed to be. At this point my motivation was definitely down, I was starting to have blister trouble, and I probably wasn't going to make course closure time. Passing past the finish a little after halfway proved to be too tempting. A pretty disappointing day.
Toph won from Reuben in something like 1.53.