orienteering race (WOC trials long) 1:55:36 [4] 11.6 km (9:58 / km) +280m 8:54 / km
shoes: Inov8 Oroc spikes
Astley's Tower
Wasn't sure how interesting a course with 19 controls would be over this distance but it turned out a decent long race, with a reasonable amount of route choice aided by the singletrack network - and it was rather fun running along the cool sandy trails and through the creek bottoms under ti-tree thickets.
Only real error was at 2, where the control description said rocky ground and I could find none whatsoever on the map so convinced myself very quickly (ye of little faith) that the description must be wrong, as the circle appeared to be centred on one of the myriad miniscule watercourses fringing the main creek, not that I could tell which end of the watercourse the control would be. On the map the watercourses appeared to be about 15m long, so I stayed that far above the creek, thereby bypassing all of them as they were in fact much shorter, and overshooting the control by a couple of min. When I came back to the correct vicinity, and saw the control, I still didn't notice any rocky ground. On subsequent inspection of Robin's 1:10 000 map I identified 3, maybe 4, dots of rockiness in a row right on the contour line, but I still can't read them on my 1:15 000!
Anyway, put that one behind me and settled into the course. Made no other navigational errors though possibly had a couple of suboptimal route choices; took a while to adopt the (when in Europe) mindset of 'tracks are my friend' and so went direct for the first half of the long leg hitting the big track between 12 and 13. Saw Anna and Rachel going into 7 above me (and Lisa Grant with whom I ran for a couple of controls), used the track into 9 which Anna hadn't, was passed by Aislinn on the long leg back to 13 and then saw her & Anna at each of the next 3 controls! Sus passed me like I was standing still on the way to 13; I gues I was getting tired but it was the last hill of the day and I enjoyed the downhill then tracks into the spectator control although bushbashing from the west probably wasn't as efficient as track from the east past the start - or track past the finish and through the assembly area as some people did! From 16 back past the finish, noting the location of the last control for future reference (which Kathryn didn't and so she subsequently spent 4 min on it) and into 17 from the minor track to the north with slight hesitations; the main track on the south side would have been faster.
Enjoyed this run; not sure what my expectations for it were but am getting used to coming 17th. Enjoyed the whole week, starting with the rogaine (and seem to have pulled up from it okay though still a bit tired and the tight knee is twinging). Train back to Sydney took 3 hours. Best bit: the Hawkesbury crossing at sunset. Worst bit: going barefoot to the toilet (urgh). Flight from Sydney got into Adelaide about 1030pm.