Run race ((orienteering)) 43:00 [4] *** 5.0 km (8:36 / km) +230m 7:00 / km
spiked:15/16c
Melbourne Bush-O at Wellington Chase is a bit of a change from mixing it with the likes of Hertner and Hubmann this time last week, but still a worthwhile experience. I'd like to blame the long run yesterday for my slowness but the truth of the matter is that I was just slow - in particular didn't feel particularly smooth through the rough going underfoot early on. Only mistake was on 8, the easiest control on the course (apart from the last), although I'm not sure it was in quite the right spot. Happy to nail some tricky downhill legs in rock, especially as last year's experience suggested that the rock mapping was not always all it could be.
Vegetation was a bit of a lottery; Max Dalheim (whom I'd caught at 3) got a jump on me at 4 through finding a nicer way across a gully, but the favour was returned on the next leg. Was thinking at that stage that it was perhaps appropriate that my music selection had thrown up "Get Lucky" on the way in to the event.
Hamstring a bit sore on the downhill track leg 7-8, OK otherwise. Took a bit of skin off my hand with a fall coming into the last control, reminding me that when you fall over in Australian terrain, it hurts.
Good turnout again - 160 or so, many of them relative newcomers. I thought the clash with Puffing Billy might have hurt the numbers but it doesn't seem to have done.
Roadside signs on the way back advertised "Quit Smoking in 60 Minutes: Guaranteed". I can think of two ways to determine the point at which one has quite smoking: the moment of extinguishing the last cigarette, or the moment at which one is sufficiently far removed from smoking as to no longer have any desire to do it. For option (a) the time taken is zero by definition, for option (b) I'd suggest that 60 minutes since the last cigarette is a bit too soon to reach the conclusion that one has quit. (Whatever the process, someone who probably could have used some quitting advice was the extremely pregnant woman I saw having a smoke in the car park underneath the Mercy Hospital later in the day).