Raid the Hammer. Had a blast with Raid newbies Robin and Chris (but sad that menzies had to drop out).
Plan was to start slow, walk all the hills and then sneak past other teams as the nav got tough or when tactics would come into play.
Apart from starting *too* slowly and getting stuck right at the back of the pack on the first trail run, then probably running too hard up the road to get a better position on the next Bruce trail section - it all went perfectly.
Robin was hurting pretty early, a combination of a bad nights sleep and mistimed breakfast due to chasing up a 3rd zombie costume, so we took every opportunity to have him rest and eat.
It worked well for the team though, Chris has a knee issue, so it gave him opportunities to stretch and it kept the intensity at a level so that I didn't made any navigational errors (fortunately I found the correct post at 'g' in the matrix - how embarrassing would it have been for an orienteer to mess up a control on a trail junction....)
Towards the end it looked like we might be able to overtake Nev's Sweat Science team (and Coalition of the Willing due to a time penalty). hammer told us a 20 we were just behind them (and Nev 'looked like shit') and then we punched the penultimate control together. Once we all hit the road together, Robin decided to go for it and it looked like we'd do it... until 50m later when he was reduced to hobbling due to calf cramp. He tried twice again to run, but that was it. 8th and comfortably under my prediction of 4:15.
I couldn't be happier though - this is a guy who 6 months ago couldn't run for 25 minutes without a break. The fact he held it together for 4 hours and pushed himself until he couldn't run any more - I'd be proud to call him an honorary Australian.
Great course by Hans and Mike. I know the Valley pretty well by now, but there was still some new spots for me. Especially enjoyed all the different 'sections' - the trail only matrix kept us out of a lot of grotty vegetation and the sweet open forest on the 'World Cup' section is always a joy to run in (though seeing the imposing peak at #12 appear out of the woods was demoralising). Bring on Snowshoe Raid.
Maps with route:
http://dontgetlost.ca/dgl_doma/show_map.php?user=P...
http://dontgetlost.ca/dgl_doma/show_map.php?user=P...