Orienteering race 1:25:26 [5] ***** 10.7 km (7:59 / km) +350m 6:52 / km
spiked:23/26c shoes: VJ Sarva #3
This is why I love orienteering. As good as it gets in Australia!
Kooyoora Badge Event, SS#9, Kooyoora Classic Day 2
Leading times.
Arthur 85
Barr 88
Key 88
Trewin 90
Won 2 day Kooyoora Classic after making up the 1:18 deficit to Blair from day 1.
Probably my best orienteering race this year on a very intense course where high concentration was required almost 100% of the time.
Good confident start, running fast (but in control) and spiking the first 5 in the more open forest. The next phase was a couple of tricky legs in light green forest. Kept good map contact, but had to drop the pace in the low visibility sections to retain control. I picked a resonable route choice across Crystal Mine mountain but didn't execute it as well as I'd like. Probably lost a minute confirming the various grey/green/yellow patches before committing to drop 10 contours to the control. I think it was worth being cautious as I could have easily blown 5 minutes and a lot of energy here.
Ran in a lower gear from 9 through to 12 as it was either complex or low visibility. I couldn't win the race on these legs, but I could certainly lose it. Did well until 12 where I lost map contact for 100m, didn't find my attack point. Relocated 30m past the control and recovered to only lose 1 minute. Not ideal, but my recovery was one of my highlights of the race in what could have been a big error.
I put the accelerator down for the next 3; downhill, more open forest and bigger features. Slowed the pace to a jog for 16-19: uphill, green and very complex rocks, but got through them unscathed. Back to faster running for 20, but map contact was still essential across a long vague section. 21 looked easy until the circle. My approach from the creek was tough and green. Approaching from the bare rock to the west would have been at least 30 seconds faster. The final km was tough and mostly green, but again map contact was the key to avoiding the worst of it, and spiking the controls.
I was satisfied to finish a mentally and physically demanding course in a good time.
m/km rates were a bit slower than some other races at Kooyoora, but there was not much white forest and a fair bit of medium green to content with.
Orienteering 29:05 [3] ***** 3.7 km (7:52 / km)
spiked:11/12c shoes: VJ Sarva #3
Course 6 - Training Run - extended warm down.
Still feeling good after completing course 1, so ran the shortest hard course as a warm down. Good technical training, but started to tire over the last 2kms.