Orienteering race 42:22 [3] 3.5 km (12:06 / km)
shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280
H4 at Frazzle. First leg was disgusting with fallen timber and rocks everywhere - 9:38 when I could probably have run 1km longer around the paddocks in 7 minutes. 100m ouit of 1, hit a big paddock where I could see exactly where 2 would be 500m away, and from 2 I could see the group of rocks where 3 would be. 3-4 was another long paddock run where I could see the feature from miles away. From 4 had to run up to a knoll with an enormous cliff and two even more enormous boulders. From the IOF description I expected the control to be under an overhang on the Western boulder, and it was obvious the easier running would be by circling the Eastern boulder to get around to the North side, while Rachel who had passed me going across the paddock to 4 went left, uphill through some complex subsidiary rocks. There was no overhang, and I reached a narrow passage where it was possible the control might be well before Rachel. I had a quick look and backed out for a rethink. Then Juffy came charging up and tried to go the slow way through a fallen tree into the passage, so I went in again, and this time climbed up over an obstructing cliff, following Juffy into a cave, where we found Dalto and Rachel. Eventually we all found an exit to the North a few metres away - and where I'd run past minutes before. I think it was Dalto who found the cave under the Eastern boulder first, with a control, and also only a couple of metres from where I'd earlier run past on my traverse around the Northern side of the boulders. Never thought to look for caves, because the description implied an overhang, and in any case it was misplaced under the wrong huge boulder.
After that I lost interest a bit and just went through the motions from 5 to 8, losing some minutes with half-hearted searches on the wrong side of features.
How did the knee go? This was my first run since a week before the first Synvisc injection 4 weeks ago. I could feel it all of the time, but wasn't painful. Duncan reckons it will be 5 weeks after the 3rd injection before I will really come good, so quite happy with the outcome. For now will stick to cycling and only running at O events.
