Training Log Archive: jennycas

So, this was the race I most wanted to do least-worst in this week. But I knew that at least 8 people on the W45 entry list (I deliberately didn't look at starting order) are faster runners than me and also capable of navigating better, so my only option was to make no mistakes whatsoever and hope that some other people weren't as clean today. Nailed everything in the N/W granite section (partly by following footpads through the Cape daisies) although was very slow on both steep downhills and steep uphills, decided to take the road all the way around on the long leg to 12 knowing that others would be faster than me but there's nothing I can do about that, and in fact right at the end of the leg Jo Allison appeared from having started 10 minutes behind me, but I kept her in sight through the next couple of short legs where she was a bit offline and then after leaving 14 I promptly got stuck in an Acacia paradoxa thicket and never saw her again.

The final 6 controls were in the Peg-Leg-Gully mining section along the creek and there were elephant-tracks everywhere, with people running all over the place. The only thing I was certain of was that larger features would stand out better, so I tried to read these carefully without panicking when things didn't come up as soon as I had expected, and somehow from having been in 8th after the long leg I ended up 5th (just) by the end of the course, and I'll definitely take that, as the best I could have done navigationally was *maybe* enough to beat Meredith Gray 1 min ahead, whereas Jo ended up 14 min faster than me even though I ran my little heart out and my not-so-little bottom followed as fast as my little legs could carry it.

Aus Long 7 - Splits

Event: Australian Orienteering Champs Pt 2
 

Tight little course on Salesian College, with a map flip. Much as I love sprints, I know that I'm not fast enough to be competetive so had basically written down any expectations of a good placing, even more so when I missed seeing that you could get through next to the forbidden path on 2-3 and therefore I ran all the way around which was about 30 sec slower (turns out Rachel did that too, and she still won).

Was very quick with decision-making & execution through the next 4 controls - Plan And Bang as per Bridget's sage advice - but then failed to take my own advice which is: always to work back from the end of the leg in order to see the traps. And therefore I fell into the trap of not seeing that you couldn't access 9 from the SW, or that you could take the northerly route to 10. Or, and this is the big one, that there was a curved black line mimicking the control circle (which was indeed cut appropriately) immediately north of my 11 (control 85, which caught out lots of people on lots of courses) and therefore I ended up having to go all the way west around the end of the fence by the basketball stadium, which was definitely slower than if I'd chosen the eastern route up front, even though Winsplits doesn't think this was a mistake - I guess that proves that it happened to lots of other people also.

So, I don't know how much time I lost overall, but it could have added up to as much as a minute compared to taking optimal route on all legs. Even so, I somehow ended up 7th of the 30-odd W45s so I guess it shows that I was running faster than I was thinking, after all. Also ended up exhausted after what somehow turned into an 8-hour day away from the house, in order to run for less than 15 minutes!

Aus Sprint 6 - Splits

Had obtained a copy of last April's courses on Neil's *other* new map and since Hania & I had both missed that event, today we caught a Blair-taxi out to the hill which I persist in thinking of as either Mt Herbert or Mt Egmont, for a run around the rocks on the way to seeing Quentin & Hania's bush block between Wychitella & Wedderburn. This was a nice little course although navigationally I didn't quite do the granite detail justice because I kept being distracted by thinking that every black stick on the ground might have a red belly and so in fact I walked very cautiously through all of the sections with long grass.

Public race after spectating the schools' relays; although the course configuration didn't really allow for a spectator control, Aislinn had done a good job of getting people out from the oval under the railway line via the creek culvert and then back from the forest through the Adelaide Road underpass, which I had predicted. So it was fun to do the same thing after the kids had run, even though I was not exactly on one of the relay courses. Took it fairly easy, often stopped to let faster people past me, enjoyed the wildflowers and the wallabies, walked up the big hills and through all of the prickly-gorse section north of the line. Navigationally I am still questioning some of my track vs cross-country route choices but I didn't lose too much time in the control circles, except when I didn't understand that 13 was going to be right inside the quarry. Still wondering how I managed to be away from 'home' for 5 hours when the arena in Chewton was only 10 mins' walk from our accommodation!

Day 3-Goldfields Course B - Splits

The last time I'd run on Mt Alexander was Easter 2013 up the north end and I'd been thinking that if today was going to be equally steep and junky I might sit this one out, but actually the southern part was pretty nice, open forest with big rocks and very soft underfoot after recent rains which had precluded parking in the paddock (the organisers did an amazing job arranging shuttle buses). I ran the senior girls' course from the Aust Schools' Champs which started up the top near the campground so had a net descent which I am not great at, but I would not have come last, although given that I had a basically clean run I can see just how much running speed I have lost over the past 30 years, given that in 1992 I came 3rd, admittedly in a time that would have only been good enough for 23rd today - the schools' competition is fast & furious in all age classes!

The happiest/muddiest person there today was definitely Loki, the Keys' border collie - I don't envy Warren & Natasha having to bathe that dog tonight :)

Goldfields 2-B - Splits

Senior girls' course from the Aust Schools' Champs, around the botanic gardens and Sacred Heart College in Kyneton. My lower back had stiffened up badly by last night and this morning I couldn't even bend down (am presuming that I was using those muscles to brace against unstable ankles on all the loose rocks yesterday) but by the time I'd warmed up across to the start it seemed fairly much ok and certainly wasn't distracting me from navigating properly. Good little course, shame about the weird control descriptions particularly on my #20 which was described as being where a wall met a garden bed but in fact it wasn't on a garden bed at all, it was inside an undercover area (room full of student lockers) - see Ricky's log for further details and map snippet - and I spent about half a minute looking around all of the garden beds in the vicinity for a control; I'm fairly certain I wasn't alone in losing time there! On the other hand, when I mentioned this issue to some people they said "oh, I don't read descriptions" and therefore they'd had no trouble with it...

Goldfields 1-B - Splits

Demoralising day. Ankle tendon had been ok running yesterday but started twinging while standing around on steep hillsides spectating the Daylesford sprint, and wasn't happy when I woke up this morning so I knew it wouldn't like the rocky ground and mullock heaps. Plus I had rather psyched myself out by the thought of the deep, potentially uncrossable trenches on this map, and that fear wasn't alleviated by hearing one junior boy say to the other at the start "You could die out there if you fall down a hole like the one I found on the model map"!

So, I basically walked all of this because it was so painful - did think about pulling out very early on but decided to get my money's worth. Took the long way around to the first control because I feared not being able to get down the cliff, then wombled around on the way into the control circle. Was too low on 2 as there was nothing I could clearly identify as a watercourse on my way there (not being critical but I did wonder if all of the blue dashed lines could have been equally represented by brown dotted lines, apart from the utter mess that would have made of the map) and bounced off the mapped pit (currently a waterhole). Have no excuse for stopping halfway to 4 and going off to check a control I could see to the left of my line on a feature I couldn't clearly identify (in fact I came back past that control later on and still couldn't figure out what it was actually on) which wasted me a couple of minutes.

Took the track around to 5 which I think many people did and in fact Ceri came past me on the way into 6 and then vanished down the cliff to the next control as though I were standing still - I went down that one on my bum because I was so uncertain of my ankle. Was a bit too high on 8 and definitely too low on 10 because I had deliberately (stupidly) gone around to the bottom of the cliff which I thought I wouldn't be able to get down. Most fun leg was actually wading the river crossing at the end because this was an ice bath for my ankle...in the end, managed to stay out for long enough that this course eventually cost me less than $1 per minute, but am a bit annoyed at some of the dumb things I did while I was too busy watching my feet rather than the map and which meant I ended up taking more than 20 min/km. I'm not ready to be mediocre just yet :(

Back in Chewton, went for a flat walk along the creek to find the crossing point from the 2009 AMDC, at which I had accidentally tripped and fallen headlong up to my neck in that particular ice-bath on that very cold wet day when the Saints lost the AFL Grand Final.

C • Ceri 1

Aus Middle 8A - Splits