Orienteering race (Easter Long distance) 1:16:22 [4] *** 11.5 km (6:38 / km)
21c shoes: Salomon S-Lab Fellcross 2
My best race of the carnival, but still not completely happy. The first section of a few short legs was worth forgetting. Started with a bad line and got quite confused when I hit the creek, spent a little time figuring out exactly where I was and then getting back to where I needed to be. #3 I headed in an alright direction, aiming off to the left. I was then confused when I hit a land form that looked very similar to the one I was looking for, and did not find my control. Proceeded to spend time running up and down the creek like a headless chicken. #5 I was again confused by similar looking land forms. #9 came way too high, losing time both climbing and dropping unnecessarily, Aidan caught me here from four minutes behind. I was then just a little faster close to #10 when I chose to enter from the bottom of the gully and he headed a little higher. I managed to stay ahead of him until #11. I started to feel something (I thought it was a twig or stone or something, but it was actually a small blister) so stopped to try and fix it and he go away from me (was always going to happen). Slow to #14 across the really vague terrain. Went to the wrong erosion channel at #16. Nailed #17, straight compass bearing hitting the bend almost perfectly (something I used to be able to do relatively consistently, but haven't been able to do recently) probably my best single leg of the carnival. next few legs were unremarkable, however at the last control I was confused by the small watercourse that was apparently on a spur, and so I was looking for a gully, and slowed down here. Overall a an ok race, but with some definite areas for improvement.