Forest Orienteering race 38:49 [5] **** 8.07 km (4:49 / km)
shoes: Salomon S Lab Speed 2
Australian Relay Champs. Team 3rd place. 5th place on 1st leg (+50).
Able to feel hip/thigh on warm up but wouldn’t call it pain and it disappeared as soon as adrenaline kicked in. This one was a bit of fun, running 1st leg with the best of the Aussies currently in Aus.
Started smooth with Pat on my split to 1 and 2. Went right with Pat to 3 and popped out on the track at the same time as the other pack (Rob, Doyley and Simon). Stupidly assumed long leg would be common and instead of navigating decided to unfold my giant map and find my codes, leading to me following Pat into his split and then having to push through 4,5 and 6 to catch back up. 7 was my second loss of concentration, aim was to go slight right but compass was sloppy and ended much further south than I wanted, while Simon cruises along a much nicer line and kept the lead. Back with the pack through to the spectator.
10 was the trickiest control on the course and when Matt stopped to read his map I confidently ran past him to what I thought was the large knoll I needed to go to the end of. Turns out there was some green shielding said knoll and I ran to the end of the next large knoll. The consequence of such arrogance being losing 45-50 seconds and the pack (who all cruised through together). Pushed hard to catch up but never caught up - a combination of the pack running just as quick as me with minimal errors and home making a few small misses while running over speed.
Disappointing, tried to make my move a little too quickly. Was feeling ok through spectator and think I would have been in a good spot to come in as part of the lead.