Orienteering 1:30:24 [3] *** 4.9 km (18:27 / km) +155m 15:56 / km
spiked:14/17c
So glad that Brent put on the training weekend, because otherwise it's possible I might still have come up to AK just for this event, in which case I may have been slightly fuming afterwards! Actually to be fair most of the course was nice, but lost a lot of time due to mapping at 5b (picking way down unmarked cliff on the nearly straight route), 6 (though to be honest the mapping was just a contributing factor, not sole cause of lost time here) and 13 (the bridge is out!). Admittedly 13 would have been less expensive had I tried crossing the stream a bit further upstream, rather than going right back to the previous bridge. Lost a little more time in the pine forest - 11 misread the formline and realised just in time the knoll was up on the ridge, not on the side, while 12 kind of ran too far down the big depression on the exit from 11, didn't lose much time, but turned it into one of those niggly legs where I was triple-checking everything and going much slower than I should have (as opposed to a Niggli leg, which is something quite different)
Orienteering (technical training) 40:00 [3] ****
Back to pcbrent's orienteering school, today's class in Woodhill (think somebody said that this bit was called Stag Soup or Spaghetti's Roar or something) Exercise 1 & 2 (didn't really note the time going from one to the other), control picking and (semi-)long legs. Apart from getting distracted by a real control sitting in the forest on the way to the first virtual control, went pretty well especially the long legs part, and felt I had my mojo back (was worried I'd left it back at the start triangle at Muriwai). Could maybe have taken it a bit less aggressively though - or worn long pants.
Orienteering (technical training) 30:00 [3] ****
Mass start/relay. Certainly felt like a good simulation of the nationals relay start: nobody seemed to be taking things seriously, my legs were stuffed before we got going, and I got to watch all the guys running away never to be seen again soon after control 1. (Unlike the real thing, I'm not sure I ever looked at my map before the first control). Still had a mini-pack happening with Reb, Ambie and Angela for a couple more legs then we kinda dispersed, and then I lost contact with the map round the one control in the coastal fringe, and as always when I lose contact there it was game over, so basically just jogged back to the cars once I'd relocated (with a lot of help from a passing Ambie!). Don't mind too much about kinda missing out on the pack racing thing as during the previous exercise there'd always been enough people around to be or not be distracted by.
Thank you Mr pcbrent for putting that weekend on, and thanks to all the others for a fun couple of days!