Orienteering race (Aus Middle Champs) 35:10 [5] 6.0 km (5:52 / km)
Gibraltar Hill near Bungendore. Had been getting quite excited about this race for a while having been able to see some big granite outcrops from the Kings Highway as we drove past a number of times in recent months. I knew Rob would have a devilish course in store for us too, so my plan was definitely to take it carefully and read as much detail as possible. In hindsight it feels like maybe I took this philosophy a bit too far at times but anyway it paid off. Hit #1 cleanly but got quite confused at #2 - the gullies around there seemed quite big but hard to pick up on the map, so I dropped down the wrong one and lost 40secs. Another 20secs or so dropped at #5 going diagonally downhill to a small rock. Still, I could tell it was very intricate and others would be making mistakes too, so I wasn't too disheartened. Did most of the intense control pick to #18 without too many problems, but quite slowly (very small hesitations on #13 and #15, and rounded the wrong big boulder a #17). Then a long leg to #19 with a straight hilly option and left or right round options. I went for the straight, being that it looked more runnable and would be the last climb on the course. So really attacked it. Drifted a bit to the left mid-leg which cost a few seconds, but caught Robbie at the top of the hill and dropped into the control cleanly. Turned out that was the decisive leg which got me the win. Ran with Robbie over the last few to finish reasonably pleased with my run but aware that others would run well and have a good chance. Having an early start, it was a long wait to see how it stacked up. I got quite nervous stood in the coffee queue listening to Jase's commentary getting higher pitched by the second with excitement as Simon descended the hill. Turned out he'd run a great race but missed quite a lot on #5, so came in only 7secs down. So a little bit fluky for me (but perhaps making up for the sprint), but it was great to join Gracie (who'd had a blinder) for a family double. A great middle distance race - course, terrain, map and competition all top notch.