Orienteering 1:21:20 [3] 5.07 km (16:03 / km)
shoes: Inov8 X-Talon
Season opener at Hill Park Dale. Dusty, flies everywhere, warm to hot and a lot of fallen timber.
Messy to 1: forgot the number one rule of Orienteering in WA; follow the rock surfaces and clearings. Ended up too far left on a pretty simple control if I had approached it from the bottom. Annoyance factor great here. 2 ok, 3 used the dams but still came around a little wide, clean through 4 and 5, followed rock surfaces and clearings to 6 in the gully and got it spot on, decided to go high to 7 but mixed up the rock surfaces and came in from the north. Made an absolute meal of 8. Struggled to read the map and seemed to head straight down the gully instead of over onto the spur (much easier to navigate sitting in a chair at home). Eventually found it but completely disheartened by this stage. Down to the track and off the fence corner to 9, 10 well hidden in fallen timber but I knew I was in the right place, 11 ok but starting to feel very weary, 12 fine, along the track to 13 and stumbled down the steep hill to 14.
Oh boy, if I navigate like this next weekend, I will come stone cold last.
Feet suffered a bit in the X-talons; ground was very hard. May need to alternate between them and runners at Easter. Trimtex pants and socks were good.