Training Log Archive: GM

Oceania Carnival event 6 at Smedley. We were squeezed in between the World Cup events in the morning and the afternoon so the organisers had mass starts for each course. This meant that there were far too many people on one course with no splitting so it became a running race almost. Not the most enjoyable orienteering events to say the least, plus it was almost completely open and hot in the middle of the day.

I started well and was tagging along behind Barbara Hill and a couple of M16s on the way to the first control, but I was still trying to read my map. Fine to 2 and was sitting directly behind GL on the way to 3, but got a bit caught up crossing a fence and SwissMiss got in between. At 3 SwissMiss stopped for a few seconds to punch the control and by the time I punched I had lost where people went. I was following SwissMiss out of 3 but to the left (I think most went right) but I thought I had seen a gap in the dark green and was happy with the route. By the time I got along the ridge and tried to cross I found that the dark green was thin and under the red line and the way was blocked by blackberries. I didn't want to go back so decided to head down the ridge to the lake and come around the bottom of the dark green. When I got there the lake was a lime green algae filled pond and the blackberries came down and into the water so there was no way through. I then slogged my way back up the hill and along the ridge to 3 and started again, but by this time all the impetus had gone. I jogged the next couple of controls and stuffed 5 a bit so decided to almost walk the rest of the course. Didn't make any more mistakes but the going was tough in the long grass. There was a large section of what looked like white forest on the map but no trees on the ground! When I got there the trees turned out to be seedlings about 1 metre tall. Apparently on the elites map which was offset printed you could see the semi open symbols but on our maps it was invisible. Either way there is no way it should have been mapped as anything but rough open. The last few controls were a slog up the hill. Didn't enjoy it much but at least I had a good idea what the elites were running through later in the afternoon - poor buggers. Apparently some compared it to the long distance at WOC and couldn't decide which was tougher! The spectating from the top of the hill overlooking the entire map was spectacular. The organisers should have broken up the courses into waves and had a much smaller group from each course starting in each wave - more like the STB race 5 at "The Slip".

Very limited opportunity for a warm up plus it was just too hot.

Event 2 5 - Splits