Run race ((orienteering)) 1:05:32 [3] *** 4.9 km (13:22 / km) +275m 10:27 / km
spiked:9/14c
NOL middle at the Gib. This was more a mission than a run - it's not the easiest of terrain even under ideal conditions, and on a wet day after a wet summer is not ideal conditions. The course also seemed to pick out more than its share of the rough stuff - even on the flat and downhills it was rarely possible to stretch out (at least for me). That said, I made some major errors too, really struggling to make sense of the most rocky areas; probably 4 minutes at #2, 2 minutes at #4, 2 minutes at #9. Probably says a lot about this performance that Strava's algorithm thinks I wasn't moving for 13 of the 65 minutes of it. (Even Aston was only doing just under 9s here, so I wasn't the only person finding it tough).
The biggest surprise of the day was that I actually ended up in front of my class at the end of the day - it was the first outing of the Sport class in the NOL. Tomorrow's women's line-up is a who's who of 2000s Australian elite orienteering, but today's men's field wasn't at that level (especially with Bruce not running). I don't think I can in any conscience claim this as a third career NOL win (although you'd probably have to go back a few years for the last time I won anything); the 10 points earned, though, were (a) probably four or five more than I would have got in 21E (b) enough to make me a scoring runner for the Vikings and (c) apparently enough to give us a two-point win over the Cockatoos. Considering how bad this run was I'll take this as an outcome.