orienteering race 1:12:07 [4] 6.7 km (10:46 / km) +240m 9:08 / km
6 days day 2, Edinchip. Uninspiring moorland and mixed woodland area at Lochearnhead. Early start meant I was making the tracks, and this was after picking the ladies up from the airport and getting to bed at 1am the night before so I was never on the pace. The open moor was very easy and I could see Chappers pulling away from me from his 1 minute start. Last time I saw him was #5, the last control on the moor. I lost half a minute at #8, looking at the other boulders first before spotting the control hidden in the bracken. Went over the top of #11, another 30 seconds, then was pretty good from there to the finish. Looks like I got the right (legal) option on the "Route choice across the uncrossable stream" leg, over the northern bridge. At #15 and completely out of the blue I saw Chappers leaving as I was coming down to it. I realised he must have made some mistakes in the last part of the course and if I sprinted back up the hill to the finish I could beat him for the day. I hammered myself up the hill and along the run in and took a whole second out of him, but that meant I beat him by 20 seconds or so. At least I had beaten him until the great uncrossable stream debacle in which I lost 3 places and Chappers gained 5 and he overtook me. We both took perfectly legal routes but mine was better, so when the leg was removed he gained and I lost. Not fair.
I finished the day in 41st place, but then got demoted to 44th for having made the right route choice. The time given is for the course without the voided leg. Niklas Rönnbäck won in 53 minutes.