Orienteering race (Kaapsehoop Rockery) 51:53 [5] 5.9 km (8:48 / km) +160m 7:45 / km
ahr:162 shoes: Inov-8 X-Talon 212 Orange
Kaapsehoop Rockery
1:5'000 5m contours
First time I've raced on the Rockery. Really fun, very technical under races conditions and my technique wasn't good enough in a few places.
Decent start, although I almost overran #1 before getting into the scale. Good through to 4 and towards 5, but I didn't see the control in the undergrowth. Lost 30s+ before I saw it, despite 2 other runners punching in the meantime.
Started hauling in Garry going towards 6, and finally got him at 12. Then I fluffed the bearing to 13 and lost 30s coming back from being too far south. Still with Garry as we approached 14, but I lost my head and didn't have a good AP going into the control. Spent the next 60s+ zig zagging through the rocks hoping to get lucky. I was too far SE to start with.
Leaving 14, I rushed it again, trying to get out before Garry saw me. Did a 60' error and ended up going NE instead of NW. Luckily I relocated quickly as I approached and was able to adjust my route to use the path that gave me a good AP into 15 (only 45s lost). Ran straight into it from the path, but in hindsight it was probably in the wrong place. Tim was the only runner to get nailed by this. I was still offish going to 16 (15s), but then I settled down again. I felt way too slow going to 17 and 18 across the open areas.
I'd a good run downhill from 19 through to 23. Going to 24 I got distracted by overstudying 25-27 and I lost position on the map. Relocated quickly, but still 15s or so lost. I took a poor route to 25 (20s) and then screwed up 26 (1 min). Ended up going through every re-entrant in the area trying to ID the correct one. The didn't run straight enough to 27 and ended up banana'ering around the back (another 45s). Not the best direction to 28 as well.
So overall about 5.5mins of time lost, which is pretty shocking given I drew the map. My technical skills were definitely too rusty and I was more concerned about safe/unsafe routes rather than doing the basics on these routes. With Tim dsq'ed, finished 1st, with Eugene about 15 mins behind.
Would love to run here more often.