Orienteering 6:50 [5] ***
spiked:7/8c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
UCOC Ultrasprint 1: Nga Puna Wai.(36/45). Fairly easy but took unnecessarily long and complex route to #2. Shortened course but not sure by how much
Orienteering 6:38 [5] **** 0.87 km (7:37 / km)
spiked:11/11c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint #2, Aidenfield School. (35/45) No mistakes as such but lost time 4-5 and maybe a bit at 6 with unmapped locked gates and construction fences on what otherwise would have been good route choices.
Orienteering 8:38 [5] **** 0.95 km (9:05 / km)
spiked:11/13c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 3, Cashmere (32/44) Caught out expecting a gap where 2 buildings join at a corner (the map could be exaggerated to make it clearer you can't get through, but I really shouldn't have read a way through there) and lost contact a bit immediately afterward, being flustered.
Orienteering 7:51 [4] ***** 0.84 km (9:21 / km)
spiked:16/17c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 4, Beckenham (29/46) Lots of small detail and even smaller control circles! Needed to be careful which probably suited my running speed fine, as apart from a bit of faff getting out of 1 and into 2, I don't recall any issues.
Orienteering 8:22 [5] **** 0.93 km (9:00 / km)
spiked:12/13c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 5, Rudolf Steiner (33/48) Not caught out by the irregular shaped buildings unlike a previous visit, and would give myself a perfect here but for running straight through #4 after already realising that I had to do an almost 180 out of the control. Last few legs were hard work though - a warning for the next round...
Orienteering 7:40 [5] *** 0.98 km (7:49 / km)
spiked:15/18c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 6, Hansen Park (41/50). Exactly the round I didn't want when it was all starting to add up in the legs - a straight blat around a flat grassy park. Wobbly into the first control, then struggled to keep direction 6-11 but I think there would only be a couple of controls that I really went astray on. Ended up in a pack by 11 which I tried to keep up with but ended up having a little walk towards the end...
Orienteering 6:59 [5] **** 0.82 km (8:31 / km)
spiked:11/11c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 7, Avonside (30/49) I think I've been here often enough to not get surprised by the changes in angles between different parts of the school, so while maybe not as smooth as it could have been no real nav issues. And the longest break yet between races may have helped coax one last bit of speed out of the legs.
Orienteering 7:07 [4] *** 0.87 km (8:11 / km)
spiked:10/11c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 8, Casebrook (37/44) The even longer break between rounds 7 and 8 didn't help though and from here on the day turned progressively more into a struggle. Reasonably easy course but went much wider than I needed to 5-6.
Orienteering 8:47 [4] **** 0.92 km (9:33 / km)
spiked:11/11c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 9, Heaton (28/45) Really struggling to keep up to pace now, but a relatively good placing on this round suggests I nailed the route choices that were key to this course (about half the legs were a choice between two very indirect routes). The 100m finish leg was not nice though!
Orienteering 7:50 [4] **** 0.93 km (8:25 / km)
spiked:12/13c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 10, St Andrews (33/44) The micropauses at each control (and sometimes between) were definitely getting more regular and longer... Apart from a bit of confusion somehow around #2 (which should have been just an easy transport leg) I think this was pretty clean. But the speed I was going at this point, I really shouldn't have been making mistakes anyway.
Orienteering 8:35 [4] **** 0.9 km (9:32 / km)
spiked:12/12c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 11, Burnside - mass start (great!) (30/41). Can't think of any mistakes as such, but most of the time didn't exactly feel in control, not helped by more bodies flying past in various directions compared to previous rounds.
Orienteering 5:52 [4] *** 0.77 km (7:37 / km)
spiked:10/11c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 12, Cobham (31/42) From hereon basically the only thing keeping me from retiring was being so close to the finish. Very minor mistake going up into 5 but clean other than that. Still got overtaken by a 7 year old though.
Orienteering 9:01 [3] **** 0.85 km (10:36 / km)
spiked:10/12c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 13 University Dovedale block (31/42) Shuffling. And a bit messy through 3 and 4. Would have been a fun one to do while still fresh.
Orienteering 10:01 [4] **** 0.93 km (10:46 / km)
spiked:9/11c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 14 University main campus (31/41). I felt like I'd got a bit of life back here and done quite well, but the stats tell me that it's perhaps more my perspective of a good performance had shifted. Wasn't exactly clean though - caught myself wanting to run off the map rather than go to #2, and missed the best route choice to #6 (saw the olive green 'blocking' that way, didn't register a path crossing it).
Orienteering 6:15 [4] *** 0.95 km (6:35 / km)
spiked:11/11c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Ultrasprint 15 Kirkwood (32/41) Might have come dangerously close to walking this whole one had I not had Angus in my sights most of the way (just didn't seem to get any closer to him though - suggesting we were suffering equally). Easy course to finish (if you ignore that the tree at control 5 had turned into a netball court...) Overall, 30th of the 38 that completed the full tour.
"Adventure Race" 4:32 [1] *****
spiked:9/12c shoes: Asics Trabuco 2020
Indoor orienteering at 'The Castle'. I think in 4.5 minutes I visited more student bedrooms than I did in 6 years at university... a lot of confusion with the first floor map (and half the controls) inverted but I seemed to handle this better than some. In fact as I bet Carsten by about a minute, as far as I'm concerned indoor orienteering is now the only kind that counts.
