The third race was in the morning, and mercifully it was much cooler. We’d been told this was a bush sprint, in a mountain biking park, close to where the 2003 bushfires were. In fact the arena was at a moving memorial for those who lost homes, pets, and even lives.

Apparently someone forgot to inform the course setter that it was a Sprint, and not a middle distance race. The first five controls were hidden in tiny erosion gullies along a thickly vegetated creek. I had a brain freeze and set off on a strange bearing down the hill, and when I arrived at the creek I didn’t know where I was. All I knew was that I wasn’t where I was meant to be. I dithered around on top, reluctant to slide down the steep banks before I knew where the flag was. Luckily Ian, who started just behind me, came along and gave me a hint. I was with another orienteer who was even more confused than me, and we both called out our thanks.  At this point I was very grateful that we’d been loaned a new “Air” SI stick which just has to be waved in proximity to the control. It saved me a few awkward scrambles in this terrain! We’ve used them since race 2.

Now I’d sorted myself out (at a costly 7 minutes) I started reading the map very carefully. It was crucial to be on the correct side of the creek. There were tiny tracks paralleling it but the colour contrast on the map was poor and they were very hard to see. I spent a lot of time peering at the map from an inch away, before heading off on the next leg.

Thankfully the rest of my run was clean with no errors, but the damage was done early and I was 47 minutes. To my surprise, I wasn’t last, in fact there were a few names below mine. Ian did well again to finish 9^th. He enjoyed the run despite having left his long pants home, and suffering some scratches. I was very grateful for leg cover and spikes. It was actually quite fun, but broke all the rules of sprint orienteering by hiding the flags, and it didn’t offer much in the way of route choice or decisions. It was also too long, with winning times on most courses well over 20 minutes. The elites did a four leg relay, and most of them were 20 minutes or more as well, way off the usual standard of 12-15 minutes.

We had a restful afternoon, trying to restore energy to our weary legs before the evening race. The venue was ANU, a well established sprint map which everyone but me has run on before (or so it seemed). It’s a lot like Monash Uni only bigger.

The terrain was a complete contrast to the morning – pure sprint, all complex campus, and a much clearer map. It started off quite straightforward and I found myself actually reading ahead for a change. All went smoothly until control 6. It appeared to be a very simple leg out of no 5 – but the control circle was obscuring a building which blocked what looked like the obvious route. Instead we had to run right around a large building to get 6, then back again to get 7. Grrr. The next 4 legs were easy and I was running well, but mindful of the long leg coming up.
This was a bit of an epic, taking us right across the campus via a bridge. Getting to the bridge was fine, but after that you really needed to read the detail well (I didn’t). I ran myself into a dead end then had to do extra distance to extricate myself and find an approach to the flag. Grrr.

The last third was equally tricky, requiring constant attention to fine details to avoid crossing out of bounds areas. Some legs were actually easier in practice than they appeared on the map – I was looking for traps that weren’t there. I had a clean finish but it was hard work to keep running. Finally I emerged from the buildings and ran across to the final control. I swiped the air stick without pausing, sucked in a deep breath, and ran the long finish chute, determined to keep up the pace till the end. I was pleased with the run as I kept up a steady pace, even though as usual I was near the end of the results. We were entertained by some claps of thunder, then the Roulettes did a flyover! I couldn’t stop to watch but could certainly hear their roaring engines.

Ian truly outdid himself with a blinding run, finishing third! Each race he has moved up the results, improving his speed and accuracy. Hopefully he can keep it together for one more day.