Extravaganza might be an overstatement, but when I happened on this 6-races-in-3-days in Tassie, on Eventor, I was instantly up for it. Luckily Ian agreed that it sounded like fun.  Most of the rest of the orienteering community headed to Wagga for the pseudo Australian 3 Days, but we decided sprint orienteering was a better way to spend the Queens Birthday long weekend. And so in a flurry we booked a flight, an Air BNB, and a rental car.  We were the only mainlanders to enter the event.

And so it was that we arose at the crack of stupid o’clock, threw suitcases full of o-tops, o-shoes, o-thermals and apres-O clothes into the car, and headed to the airport.  It was a short, smooth flight to Launceston and by late morning we had collected our vivid blue car. Now Launceston is not exactly bustling at any time, so with little traffic to impede us, we quickly arrived at the venue for Race 1 – Brooks High School on the east side of the Tamar River. After a short briefing and a quick warmup round the car park, Ian was off, with me following 9 minutes later.

The overprint on the map was poor, making it hard to see the start triangle, but once I had that worked out, it was straightforward enough to the first control, taking care not to cross any out of bounds on the way.  No 2 was a bit trickier, being inside a fence with a tiny gap.  The next three were pretty easy, I was running well and feeling good – after all we were the sole Victorian representatives so we had to do well!

From no 5 we headed into the surrounding streets – the campus itself was quite small, so the course included a nearby park.  After no 6 I had to flip the map, then head off on a long downhill – which I knew I would pay for on the way back.  The going underfoot in the park was rough and boggy, and I slowed to a walk.  The five controls were easy to pick off with no real navigation required, then it was a long slog up a lot of contours back to the school.  It was here I made my first error, emerging from a group of buildings at the wrong angle. I saw a flag and checked the number – it was my no 15. Trouble was, I was heading for 13 … quickly fixed but a couple of minutes wasted.  The rest was easy – in fact the lack of complexity was a bit disappointing.

Having said that, Ian managed to run past one of the controls in the park without punching it, a common error when you get complacent.  At our club’s Sprint Double a few weeks ago (an event which kept me way too busy to blog after NZ, hence the long gap), the course setter caught out lots of people with a very simple final loop, because they didnt check their numbers.

We are staying in the western hills overlooking the city, in the familiar suburb of Prospect, where we have stayed twice before – different house this time.  It’s cosy and comfortable.  We spent the afternoon lazing about, recovering in time to be ready for the evening event.

At 5pm we gathered in the looming dark, preparing for our first ever night sprint. This is something we’ve talked about, but never done, so we were interested to see what it would be like.  We were in Trevallyn Park north of Cataract Gorge, an area we’ve run on in daylight. It’s an equestrian park full of cross country jumps.  We donned our head torches and waited in anticipation.

We were sent off in groups of four. I had already decided to walk, not brave enough to run over rough terrain at the best of times, I was not going to chance it in the dark.  The first control was fine, but I quickly found myself in lots of undergrowth, fallen branches, then reedy plants.  It took me 10 minutes to find no 2, and I knew I was in trouble.  “Whose stupid idea was this” I muttered darkly.  I pressed on for a few more controls, but at no 5 I decided to skip ahead, missing about 10 controls and cutting across to 16 and completing only the last 6 before finishing with relief.  I didnt mind the dark, I just didnt like the terrain, and it was very challenging to navigate without any visual clues.  It was right back to the basics of taking accurate bearings and hoping for the best.  I’m not sure why they chose a bush reserve for the night “sprint” – I would have much preferred to do this in daylight, and had a campus to run on in the dark.

Ian managed to complete his long course but it took him nearly an hour and a lot of error making.  So far we have not flown the flag very well for our home state.  Oh wel,, there are three races tomorrow – two campuses, then another night event, also in a park.  That’s a score event so we can wander round in any order, which will suit me a lot better.  On the final day we have one more campus race before flying home to – wait for it – streetO at 7pm.  A recipe for exhaustion.