Orienteering race 1:33:16 [4] 12.6 km (7:24 / km) +300m 6:37 / km
ahr:169 max:187 shoes: Inov8 Roclites
Hagaby Style loop race, mass start.
Started off well, was actually reading the map and everything until the splits sorted themselves out. Was feeling pretty good and staying with the pack easily, was very cool in this first section with the three split packs crossing over and rejoining at the common controls.
Unfortunately the fun was short lived for me when I decided my pack was going the wrong way, I deviated and ended up at the wrong control on the boulder/cairn split 2/3rd of the way through the loop. I could just get a glimpse of the tail end of the pack as I punched, a 30 second error 2 controls later sealed the deal for me. Formed a stragglers pack for the last part of the loop of myself, Nicko, Leon and a few others, but once we all split at the start of the next loop it was pretty much a solo course, which was a lot slower without blokes in front of you knocking all the trees out of the way.
An occasional random pack would form every now and then but never solidifying into anything decent until John, Mark, Callum and myself all suddenly joined together on the run down to the road crossing.
They all seemed to be going faster than me here and I was a little worried that I wouldn't keep up, but once we got into the detail the pace slowed and we wearily made our way over and around the rocky hillsides.
With Callum in the pack and unsure of the other 2 blokes final kick I was psyching myself up for a push at the end, so when I upped the pace I was surprised (and pretty happy) no one challenged me. To celebrate I pretended the final fence wasn't there and spectacularly ate dirt (I was in good company with Kathryn doing it too) and killed myself in the finish chute.
So, better than the previous 2 races, but not as good as I know I'm capable of. It'll come though.