Run race ((orienteering)) 15:12 [4] *** 2.1 km (7:14 / km)
spiked:23/25c
2nd stage of Sprint Canberra at Radford. A mass-start sprint race is hardly a format well-suited to my abilities (although one advantage of falling off the back quickly was avoiding the worst of the congestion at the early controls), and my principal objective was not to come last. I was, however, feeling a lot better than yesterday, and settled into a good scrap in the grupetto - the (mostly) old men's bunch also featuring Jim, Jase, Eoin and Matt Purcell. A couple of slight wobbles through being not quite sure what was and wasn't legal, and had trouble getting used to just how quickly things came up on the 1:2000 section in the middle, but was really enjoying myself - until taking a big stack on the stairs coming into control 22 and landing on my backside. (I have a somewhat unfortunate history with sprint races in the wet in that respect, although I'm pretty confident that, unlike Auckland 2005, there are no broken bones this time). Took me most of the next leg (the third-last) to get back above jogging speed, taking away any chance I might have had of making a late attack on Jim and Jase, but did beat a few home on time (as well as the DNFs) and was nowhere near as far back as yesterday, even allowing for the shorter distance. Lanita didn't seem too pleased that I'd got her by two seconds (the women had the same course, though not at the same time).
You had to be young and crazy to do well today - juniors filled the first three places.
My rear end was pretty painful for the hour or so post-run, and still isn't great; it seems to me to be a slightly more severe version of the injury I did in Brisbane in July, in which case I should still be OK to run, if not necessarily comfortably. Will have to tell David Mulford sometime that I stacked it on the front steps of the building that's named after him. (He's the former principal at Radford - was a teacher at Canberra Grammar when I was there, and while I never had him as a teacher, he and his wife became family friends when Mum was working at the primary school there).