Training Log Archive: Shingo

Needed after running for 7 days straight.

Day 5 - Beeechworth
Well that was long! Arrived at the assembly area to find a notice that the courses were 50% longer than advertised and course 3 wwas 7.2km. Looks like there was some confusion with the map scale! Brutal start up the hill to the road, along this and then into the bush, not completely successfully, to 1. This set the tone for the race with lots of track running with controls situated in granite outcrops, some of which I found easily others not. Most frustrating mistake was the long leg where I was trying to find 15 using the control description for 16! Certainly a long day at the office and pretty stuffed at the end.

Overall not the most successful of 5 days finishing 15th out of 59 entries. Lots of careless mistakes, a lot of which are caused by not keeping in touch with the map. Not having a compass on day 2 wasn't as bad as it could have been with only one big mistake on the vague, long leg.

Ewan kept the family fortunes up by winning Men's G, his first time on an Easy course and Nea was 3rd in the novice class.

Note: Garmin Connect reads 11.05km but GPX download to AP only reads 10.89km!

C • 15th.. 3

Way too long (50% longer than it should have been) and way too hard. The worst bit was having to follow a fence line which was no longer there! Course included a few road crossing and legs which should have been taped. Nea did well to finish and had the fastest time on the day.

Day 4 - Rowdy Flat
Was feeling very nervous before going out as I had heard so much about this map. Gave myself a scare going to 2 as I have no idea how I actually found it. After that took very safe routes with one error on the long leg to 7 where I took the wrong path out of a clearing involving a 300m out and back detour. Very pleased to have finished in a reasonable time, nothing flash but I still finished.

Day 3 - Kangaroo Crossing
Total fail losing over 20 minutes at 2! Found myself back at 1 after 8 mins, all I can assume is that I did a 360 in the thick native pine. Finally made it across the track and continued to stumble around relocating off the track at least once before being led into the control by Colm (O-ing's bro) and Milo who was on fire. Things did improve aftre this but lost some time on 8 and 10. To round it off the Garmin didn't register so no GPS track to see where I went, hence the distance is a guess.

Arrived at the start as it was being taken down. Interesting first half following the creek followed by a x-country leg.

Day 2 - Barambogie North
Realised at the start triangle that I had forgotten my compass so I was in for an interesting run! Luckily the first control was on a path junction so wasn't too difficult except for having to turn back when I ran into some thick bracken when cutting a corner between paths. 3 to 4 was the scary leg across vague country. Took too much of a southly bearing before correcting myself using the sun and ended up at a path junction obscured by the control descriptions on the map. The following controls were mainly on rocky features so very careful map reading helped me get around without any other major mishap. Not having a compass certainly helps you focus on the map.

Event: 2012 Christmas 5 Days
 

Day 1 - Magenta (Chiltern)
Ok through 1 & 2 but then managed to run off the map at 3. Ended up on a ridge with a line of depressions and mounds similar to what I was looking for. Tried to convince myself that I had been reading the map wrong and that the control was on a ridge rather than a gully. Finally sense prevailed and I relocated off the track to find the control. A suboptimal route choice on the longer leg to 6 meant more climbing than necessary and bumbled around a bit at 12 looking for the fence. Overall not a great start to the 5 days.

Boxing Day event at Queenscliff.
Shadowed Ewan around the course, non stop commentary not at lot of which was running/orienteering related!