An early start saw the DIP in Dipidydoo (Deb, Ilze, Pete) heading off to Canberra; somewhat appropriately to spend the Australia Day weekend in our nation’s capital. Patriotism was not our reason – it was of course the lure of 5 Sprint races in 3 days; a great little package, done and dusted with one day’s leave and a public holiday.  Ian and I went two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The highlight of the road trip was undoubtedly lunch at the Holbrook Bakery, which makes the best pies in the world.  My country chicken pie did nothing to dispel my opinion, formed after stopping there en route to and from the Aus Champs last year. The rest of the drive was unremarkable, and we duly arrived mid afternoon.

We’d booked a small house in Bruce, conveniently close to all the venues.  For the first time in many visits to Canberra, we navigated there with no geographical embarassments!  A couple of hours rest and stretching, and we were ready to race.

Venue 1 – the Australian Institute of Sport; a new map to me but familiar to others.  We lined up as soon as the Start opened, as thunderstorms were threatening.  It was two months since I’d last picked up a compass or run a sprint, so I was expecting to be a little rusty; this was going to blow out the cobwebs.

I noted the starters ahead of me were running to the right, following a path around a garden bed. Picked up the map and a quick glance showed me this was correct; noted the final control as I passed it on the way; followed the curve and dived into the shrubbery as soon as I spotted the flag on the end of a mulch covered low spur.  So far so good!  Now it got tricky …

Control 2 was almost directly north, but there were so many obstacles. I scanned the map left and right.  To the right, lots of uncrossable fences, and the only feasible route was pretty wide.  To the left it looked shorter but more complicated, with some small fences, but I could see a way through.  At least I thought I could … smack bang up against a locked gate.  Damn!  Check the map – yes there is that telltale small black line, blocking my way.  I backtracked around the building and found the way through, then up a ramp, down a ramp, turn right and there it was.

The next few controls were easy and I was running quite well considering I’d spent 7 hours in a car. No 6 slowed me down as it was on a forested spur with lots of loose sticks and branches.  Straight on to no 7, made the right route choice to no 8, and proud of myself for picking the right level for no 9, which was on the lower portion of the ramp, so no time lost.

The last few controls were out of the complex stuff, just heading out east and following a reasonably straight line of 4 controls.  A poor approach to no 11, and a bit of a brain fade at no 12, then put the head down for the last one, and into the finish which seemed to go on forever.  Done!  Of course with 50-ish people of all ages and both genders on my course, I will be in the bottom third, but I was happy with an almost completely clean run first up. For the record, Pete beat me by 10 seconds, which I attribute to him having an SI Air stick and me not. Although the splits say it was my booboo going to no 2 that was really the culprit.

The rain came … but we were home and dry, with four more races to look forward to, and chocolate ice creams in the freezer.  Ah, life is good!

Deb.

PS. by Pete.

Debbie’s claim to having lost by 10 seconds because I was using my new SI Air stick is not the complete truth. For the non orienteering the SIAC device only needs to be waived over the control, not inserted into the control box, thus generating a time save of 1 or two seconds per control and in a 20 control race this can be the winning margin. It also allows the user to continue running past the control and move swiftly on to the next. At this point the observant of you will have noticed the two fateful terms, CONTINUE RUNNING and MOVE SWIFTLY. These phrases no longer appear in Pete’s book of orienteering. In truth the advantage lies with Deb who has those few precious extra seconds of recovery time. And another thing, when using the SIAC device you are advised to raise it to your ear after punching a control as it emits a beep to confirm correct recording. In the hustle and bustle of maps, compass and sweat removal (all conducted whilst continuing to move swiftly) I poked myself in the eye with the damned thing at lest 3 times and we have more that 20 c0ntrols next race.

I can confirm the presence of chocolate ice-cream in the freezer.