Orienteering race (H1) 2:27:28 [4] 9.21 km (16:01 / km) +351m 13:27 / km
ahr:154 max:176 20c shoes: Salomons XR Mission
To start - what a beautiful day for it and what an awesome course - enjoyed today the most out of all the maps so far this season.
Average and max heart rate are down so I must be getting fitter (or didn't work as hard). and somehow I managed to do it in 351 climb I am sure the board said it would be 440... awesome avoided climb - very happy.
Before I get into the debrief - shakes fist at simmo... your 4 second block at end cost me fastest finish split haha :P next time I am not going to tell you I am coming up like a freight train and just stream straight past :)
So - Emma and Polly came out today - Emma was opting just to sit at camp and read a book and enjoy the cake. Polly and I tackling the H1 - Polly was keen to do by herself but was still unsure on locating and worried about getting lost. so we signed up as solos but she came with me so I figured I would try teach myself whilst teaching her and slow down abit and think about it.
was actually quite good and I got a bit of learning from it!
Polly and I naved well all day generally pretty confident in location on map. Often stopped though to show Polly our exact location and what I was looking at which typically I wouldn't have done myself before. was interesting because she was doing what I normally do which was head down and run on a bearing and then guess if far enough or not. Today I really sat behind her and enjoyed looking at the features knowing I knew exactly where I was and let her get a feel for what was what - which she did pretty quickly with a few tips.
Missed #3 a bit north just about 10 -15 m - Ian was chasing us all day and gave this one away for us. We lost Ian on way to #5 - we however almost managed to hit 6 instead of 5 so made it quickly back to 5 and on way back was first time spotted ricky for the day. got 5 and returned at speed to 6 - surprised didn't pick up a faster time for it because I was motoring.
Also on way to #5 found a few lost kids looking on their active map for point 2 - pointed them down the river and progressed onwards. On the way from 6-7 found the same kids lost again trying to get from their 2-3 removed their geographical embarrassment for the second time and thought god help them after this because they need it. have a feeling someone would have gone to retrieve them later!
#10 had us looking for a bit but we found ti alright - it was also at this point my fitness and the last 2 nights drinking was starting to factor in on my athletic performance :P That's okay a reasonable pace was maintained.
Bit of a race to #11 with Polly for shits and giggles and lost my map on the sprint approach. a nice lady grabbed it and turned to Polly and said how much is it worth for me to keep it from him... Half saw comedy half saw red - she didn't make me wait too long though which was nice of her.
Coming out of #12 a fence attempted to take me down - it failed but valiant attempt.
Overshoot 13 on the road but quickly realised and went back and grabbed it.
Looped around the start route for 14 which made it easy and reasonably quick by my standard. 15-18 was all pretty straightforward and on the money.
19... what a pain - didn't go around the corner far enough to see it - ended up hunting for a while... once we had it 20 was quick called sprint finish and caught Polly unaware.. steam rolled down toward camp trying to pass simmo - let him know I was coming and he picked up pace then body blocked me while he punched then kept me off it a bit hehe - cheeky. was amusing though (until I saw the splits).
Oh well main thing - beat Polly by 5s ahah.
Poor Tash went out all game as well - had to pull out :( I promised I would go out with you too - maybe next time well go together - Lovers Lane would have made for a good one though. (oh an I expect none of this silly running stuff Polly loves to do thanks).\
What else to not - Ian came in at 3hrs - ouch., a few new blisters - yay. but shoes are certainly a lot more comfortable now. Shins have been good until pretty much tonight. oh and Little C was amazing!
Good job to Craig and Rach on the set - really enjoyed it!