Orienteering race 59:02 [4] 7.61 km (7:45 / km) +303m 6:28 / km
shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280
H2 at John Forrest. I was planning to do the H4 but when Rachel came back from the caravan having registered for the H2 because the H4 was only 2.3km I thought I'd better do the H2 as well. By the time I eventually started just before 11am I had realised it was probably a mistake but couldn't really back out at that stage.
Took a fairly direct route to 1 and was confident I'd found the clearing above the cliff but couldn't see any boulders on the edge of the clearing and lost about a minute searching without ever really working it out. Briefly out to the track and back in to 2 which I bumped into a bit earlier than I expected. Struggled up over the hill to 3, not feeling very good but no problem. Wanted to stay off the roads as much as possible and avoid climb so I went around to the right and ran up the creek. Had to cross the creek several times to stay out of back yards, not fast but more interesting.
Thought I might try to run in the bush up to 5 but by the time I got there I was exhausted and the bush didn't look very inviting so I stayed on the road. 5, 6, 7 were fine. Lots of hesitation in the flat area coming into 8, didn't look at all like I expected but found it ok in the end. Came into 9 a bit higher than I thought I was and wasted maybe 30 or 40 seconds looking too high.
10 was easy but 11 was in the wrong spot. I spent about 2 minutes looking around where it should have been because it was steep, thick and rocky so it took a while to be convinced I'd looked everywhere they could have put it. Found it pretty quickly once I moved on. Pretty straight to 12 which was easy but I never saw the track mid leg.
I was heading straight for 13 about 30 seconds away from it but things didn't look quite right so I checked the map and noticed the control should be inside the white so I headed for the trees to the South. Found peterk who made the map standing next to a nice boulder cluster but no control. Relocated off little creek just below 2 and worked back from there to find it ok, about 2:30 lost. Found brycec at 14 who obviously wasn't having a great day as he said something about following me to the finish.
Should have just gone for a trail run with fenry.