orienteering race (Oceania Long Rototoa Lake) 1:06:02 [4] 5.0 km (13:12 / km) +215m 10:52 / km
shoes: Inov8 ORoc 280
Long race, except that it wasn't really very long because of the perks of running W40 - some elite middle distances I've done lately took me longer than this. And some of the top W40s (good work Jo!) are still running and winning elites...
Anyway, I was excited to finally run at Woodhill forest although not particularly enthused about the thought of the pampas grass, which is why I took the track around to the first control, and had a good attack point on the mound, although then the little gully with the control in it seemed to be a little further on than expected, subtleties in the contours being easily disguised by clumps of pampas grass. But I enjoy the challenge of having to infer the terrain from the map; otherwise what's a map for?
2,3,4 in the low-vis slow-run stuff went well, then I was so proud of myself for seeing a fast track option towards 5 (thinking like a European, I am) but wary that I didn't have a good attack point for coming in off the track at the end if I didn't read the edges of the clearing correctly. And so it proved, plus it would have helped if I'd realised that the 'knoll' was part of a line of junky logpiles. Think I lost a couple min here, but I did also catch up to Anna Fitzgerald, who must have lost time earlier also because she can certainly run faster than me, as evidenced by the way she then took off towards the 'escarpment' which involved scrambling about 5 contours straight up, leading on to a shallow plateau where it was best to follow the deer paths among the clumps of pampas (I actually saw 2 small deer) and although I was slow through this section I didn't get too confused.
After coming down off the 'plateau' there was a transport leg across open pine (reminding me somewhat of WMOC in Gothenburg - and actually those maps, despite being granite, had reminded me quite a bit of sand dune terrain) and then up the hill into manuka tea-tree with not much undergrowth but lots of little lumps and bumps. Somewhere in here I saw Anna again, and then I saw her on-and-off for the next few controls then we pretty much chased each other through the last 4 controls although I led us both the wrong way around the bush into the last control, something which I was rather ashamed of until I saw many many people doing the same thing later in the day!
Anyway, the outcome of this was that I somehow scraped into 3rd and was well satisfied because I know I'm fairly good at sand dune navigation, even if the Tas NOL results didn't bear this out. It really is all about managing to retain focus though - looking away from the map for a few seconds can lead to becoming horribly unstuck, as many many people found out today. While waiting for the presentations, I paddled in the beautiful lake below the arena with Ana, envious of Zara actually going for a swim! It was a grand day out, but by the time G had picked me up from Steve's and we got back to our motel, I'd been away from 'home' for nearly 10 hours and was exhausted...this too is practice for WMOC, I guess.