Run race ((orienteering)) 1:07:25 [4] 10.2 km (6:37 / km) +245m 5:54 / km
Long(ish) mass-start race in Bendigo, at Crusoe, on a fast course even by Crusoe standards (Bryan did 46). I knew I wasn't up to taking off from the mass start - this mass start usually fills the function of providing various unexpected characters the chance to spend a bit of time ahead of me - but even given that (lack of) expectation, the first few minutes were awful - coughing and spluttering and feeling distinctly out of sorts. At that stage I thought I might be lucky to see out a few controls, but settled down and was able to go around at cruise speed, though not beyond - fortunate this was a physically easy course.
Didn't see many people early on (had a long split on the first pivot), but once on the common second half of the course, started to spend a bit of time around others. Caught up to a bunch of John N, Bridget and Lachlan Cherry at 13, and got through them a bit through a lower line to 14. Lachlan was able to stay with me (and made a certain amount of the running), and we were still together at 19 with a few short legs to come. I turned out to be the one who cracked technically with 20-second misses at both 20 and 21; the latter brought Bridget back within striking distance too, but not quite close enough. Lachlan was just ahead at the last but I was never going to win a sprint against him.
Getting a bit frustrated with the slow rate of my recovery, though that was farly similar in 2012.