Today marked the start of the Easter 3 Day competition, where the war of attrition starts. One mispunch, and you are out of contention for the whole comp – game over. Even if you are holding up the bottom of the results, there is satisfaction to be had in completing all three days intact. That is my aim.
Last year in NSW, we experienced one of the toughest Easters ever, in really difficult terrain that everyone struggled with, on courses that were too long and hard for a 3 day comp. This year, the Queenslanders have so far been kinder, providing much more open and enjoyable forest, with scattered rocks and not much climb. Only the long grass, a product of a summer and autumn of record rainfall, impedes progress – and it has its advantages, as the flattened trails lead you in the right direction. Of course, you need to pick the right flattened trail …
Our destination today was Reedy Creek, about 30 minutes the other side of Kingaroy – almost 2 hours drive for us. There are several “Reedy Creeks” in this part of Queensland – one of them quite close to where we are staying; and back when we were booking, I assumed the events were at that one. I was congratulating myself for finding accommodation that was so conveniently situated. I goofed – turns out it was the other Reedy Creek. And with start times from 8am each day, we have a couple of extremely early alarms to face.
It was a civilised 6.30am wakeup this morning, and we were out the door an hour later. We retraced our steps then continued through Yarraman and Nanango, gradually climbing through a mix of farmland and state forest. The dirt track into the arena was one of the roughest I’ve encountered – and it has just been graded! Not looking forward to repeating it tomorrow.
We arrived in the arena to see people were already finishing. We had an excellent view of the final control. Pete departed first, followed by Ilze, then me half an hour afterward. Pete and I are on the same course; Ilze is on the next one down so slightly shorter. Today was proper Middle Distance, with winning times around 30-35 minutes.
My vestibular system has been improving a lot recently, and for the first time in 3 years, I’ve been feeling “normal” whilst out on a course. I still need a walking pole for balance, support and reassurance, but I am starting to move more briskly and with more confidence in rough terrain. This allowed me to focus on navigating and to think less about where I’m placing my feet. It’s also a relief not to have a head that feels like a ping pong ball on a stick!
It was a nice clear map with lots of yellow splodges, indicating open areas, with lots of smaller black splodges, indicating rocks. The direct route to the first control went straight through green stripey stuff, indicating evil Queensland vegetation that may seek to strangle you. So wisely I went round it, following a small goat track (minus any small goats – though Pete has just seen a stag on a hill, whilst driving back from the shops).
The next 5 legs were all technical, from rocky bit to rocky bit, trying to pick the boulders from the boulder clusters from the bare rocks from the cliffs. It went remarkably well; I even caught up to Philly at no 4, knowing she had started 10 minutes in front of me, so that was a nice boost to my confidence. In fact there were a few others on my course at this point who seemed confused, but I had read all the large rock features on my approach, and felt that nice (and rare) sense of certainty as I led the way in.
After no 6, we had two legs across more vague, less rocky terrain. I found no 7 with no problems, and thought “I’ve got this”. Big mistake. I got complacent, failed to read the rock, and drifted off to my left into a gully. Yes you have all heard this story before, more than once…
Luckily there was a very obvious termite mound, which I relocated from. As I climbed back up the hill (grrr) I saw a rock that looked right – but it had a cluster of water cups and containers, which weren’t indicated on my map. I started doubting myself – but everything matched, other than the pile of white plastic strewn around the base of the control stand. I checked the number- phew, it was mine! I’m not sure of the rules – surely if water is placed at a control, the map should tell you? Pete actually decided it wasn’t his control, and spent considerably longer looking for it than I did. I wondered if a protest would be upheld.
Hoping that was my only error for the day, I headed across a clearing towards no 9. Control description = “distinctive tree”. Really??? There were several piles of rocks and lots of trees; nothing much distinctive about any of them. I couldn’t work out for the life of me why they didn’t choose one of any number of rocks. Turns out the tree was dead. Hmmm. Anyway, I wasted a good 5 minutes hunting for this one. Finally found it, straight into the last control, and finish.
It was a bit of a good news/bad news story. The bad news was that I was 10th out of 11, half an hour behind the winner. The good news is that without those two errors, I would have finished around midfield – which means my “speed” is picking up and I am definitely moving more quickly across terrain Today was a simple matter of losing focus at the end. I was 7th through most of the course, which is respectable in my current state of vestibular dysfunction.
Pete had an unfortunate mispunch when his SI stick failed to register control 3, even though he punched it (and was able to accurately describe the control). His meanderings around control 8 put his time a couple of minutes ahead of mine. Ilze had a fall and was unable to find her 4th control, but she completed the rest of her course – a brilliant effort with a frozen and very painful shoulder, something which seriously hampers your mobility on uneven ground.
It gets dark early here. We’re having an early dinner, an early bedtime, and a VERY early (5am) wakeup tomorrow. It’s back to the same arena on similar terrain, and I’m looking forward to it.
dipidydoo 