NSW State League race 1:21:26 [5] 3.8 km (21:26 / km)
SL1 @ Gardiners Gap East
Tough day today. I always knew it would be as that's what this area is like. Reasonably heavily vegetated, with lots of rock detail amongst fairly steep slopes. Was hoping to get a kick from my "extra" training run but to say that didn't eventuate is an understatement.
The day started poorly as we were about half an hour late heading off from home, then only about 40 minutes into the drive LeepBax decided, quite out of character, to have a spew. Must say those baby capsules are designed brilliantly to catch every last chunk. We spent about 20 minutes on the side of the F3 trying to clean he and his car carrier as best we could but had a mild aroma of vomit accompany us for the rest of the trip. To make matters worse Mapgirl had failed to locate my e-stick and newish Moscow compass. This meant I had to go and get one from rego and have this all fixed up. All this added up to me being a tad late and having to jog/run the 1.5km to the start but I did manage to get there with one minute to spare. Many athletes would welcome such a warm up, but all it meant was that I was already fatigued going up the spur to the first control. It got a lot worse from there. I felt like I had a virus or something. I couldn't believe how quickly I was tiring and cramping in the legs.
To make matters worse half way around I started making mistakes, going up the wrong "gullies" in the rocks etc. I tripped on several occasions and even hit my head on one of the HUGE rock features as I read my map while running beside it. OUCH.
Not a good day at all. Mapgirl though did have what I thought was an OK run for her. She was only a few minutes down on Maggie and in second place.
LeepBax had a ball and had no qualms about being left with neither mum nor dad when dad failed to return prior to mum's start time. Thanks to all the wonderful baby sitters that looked after him and kept him amused in our absence. He really seems to like the great outdoors and all the activity that is happening around him at orienteering. Shame we didn't get him on a string course. Ryder is already one up on him.