Orienteering race (Groenkloof Nature Reserve) 2:04:16 [5] 12.6 km (9:52 / km) +540m 8:07 / km
shoes: Inov-8 X-Talon 212 Orange
Mountain Marathon Champs at Groenkloof: 1:15'000
Still felt a bit off with the cold. Gave a hand and started late, so ran most of the course without seeing anyone else. Very distracted at the start and thankfully Eugene noticed that I was about to forget to clear my emit at the start.
I was a bit off for the first few controls. They showed that Eugene had planned a tough route over the tougher parts of the map, so I started getting more motivated. Messed up #5. Lost 4 minutes when I must have gone just passed it within a few metres and not seen it. Another small error at #8 when I dropped past too low without seeing it. Running however was going nice on the rocky terrain. Next mistake was when I missed the path through the valley between 12-13 and got caught in 3m high dense grass. Also small error at #14 due to 'new' track not being updated on the map. Had a good section then around the S and W side of the maps. I took the right route choice on the long leg, going along the W fence, but didn't see the short cut gap next to the caraban park, instead running through the main car park. Still going well until #24. Turns out that I was leading going into the area, but I then lost 8 minutes looking for the control which was a long way out of place. In the end, I finished 2nd, about 3 mins behind Brad, so a dissapointing result for one of my favourite races each year. On the positive, my running, although slow, felt strong and steady for the full distance.
Good planning, especially given the outdated map, just a big pity about that penultimate control. :-(
Also nice to see that the winning time crept into the intended winning time bracket for the first time in a long while, although superman time is probably about 1h40.