Run race ((orienteering)) 1:07:16 [4] *** 8.6 km (7:49 / km) +305m 6:39 / km
spiked:19/20c
Spoilt an otherwise good run with a mistake on the third-last in the vague stuff - drifted down the hill and came in underneath a creek junction, which then meant that I found myself too far over. Dropped about 2.5-3 minutes there, which was enough to cost me the win on the day as Dion had an excellent run (although we were close most of the way - indeed we were tied at controls 12 and 13).
I actually thought I might have had a bit more in hand than that because otherwise I felt quite a bit better than yesterday, and when taking the no-guts-no-glory option on the hilly 8, felt as strong as I've felt up a big hill for a long time. Still have what should be a reasonably comfortable lead (4.44) going into the last day, as long as I don't do anything stupid. Dion starts 4 minutes after me, but I don't intend to try the strategy of waiting for him and staying on his back for the rest of the course.
It's actually an unusual experience for me to be leading into the last day of an Easter. I've won four, all in juniors, but three of them were coming from behind after two days (two by seconds, one by 9 minutes). One of them was M20 here in 1990, when Ant Burnett was about 15 seconds ahead of me after two days, and was none too impressed that the start draw had me two minutes behind him. On that day you ran some distance from the 6-minute pre-start to where the maps were, and he took the opportunity to swap his top over so I wouldn't know what I was chasing. As it turned out, I never saw him, but gained enough ground (a minute or so) to take the win anyway. (No splits in those days - I suspect a lot of ground might have been made up at the end). Pity Ant isn't here to renew the contest, although he's a year older than me so would have been in M45 in any case.