Run race ((orienteering)) 1:57:20 [4] *** 9.7 km (12:06 / km) +540m 9:28 / km
spiked:15/20c
After some promise early in the week this was a terrible disappointment - mostly through my body letting me down. I had been a bit apprehensive because my back (which hasn't otherwise been troublesome this trip) wasn't feeling right walking around yesterday, but it felt OK on the warm-up (and 2.4k to the start gives you plenty of warm-up) and I thought it would be reasonable. By 10 minutes into the race, though, it was apparent it would not be reasonable, and as usual when this happens, the consequences were loss of power uphill and in soft ground (which between them account for a lot of the course).
Had this been, say, a State Series, I may well have called it a day at number 3, but on a day like this when there was no immediate tomorrow, I was going to keep going as long as I could keep moving, and hope that it loosened up, as sometimes happens. It never really did, and all I could do was keep slogging on and watch helplessly as the front third of the start list progressively cruised by. Finishing was just about the only positive to draw from this (and at least I didn't come last - one person was even worse).
Perhaps not surprisingly, as I struggled physically the concentration lapsed and the mistakes began to come - perhaps two minutes on 6, 45 seconds on 7, a minute on 9 and another minute on 13. A very disappointing and frustrating day all round.
The course was a bit longer than expected with about 5.5% climb - Matthias Niggli won in 71 (it's supposed to be 65). The terrain was certainly no faster than the first qualifier so I suspect that upper 90s/low 100s would have been about what I might have been able to do with a decent run, which would have been about 40th place.
Off to Scotland tonight. I was never going to run tomorrow due to a clash with IOF meetings; hoping that I'll get to the start line for day 2 of the 6-days if it settles down in time.