This morning we woke to rain; our Lonely Mountain was well and truly gone.  The radar suggested we’d be getting wet – and it was right.  Our lovely new DROC tops were buried under raincoats, and we looked gloomily out of the window, not enthused about any sort of outdoor activity.  We steeled ourselves, dived into the car, and headed to Race 1, a school campus.  There was no shelter at the arena, so after a quick look at the finish chute, we prepared ourselves and headed to the start.

As my start time neared, the rain eased, then stopped, and I stayed dry while running.  My course featured 22 controls, all on the same side of the map, so there were circles and numbers everywhere.  We discovered that whoever has prepared the maps, has not done a good job of placing the numbers, or cutting the circles and lines – there are cuts where they don’t need to be, but none where they are needed.  The gaps between things are also too small, so a lot of peering at the map was needed.  I had a bit of trouble deciphering which circle was my first control, but once I got that sorted out, I was under way. 

The first half dozen controls were very tightly concentrated and I felt like I was unpicking a puzzle, just to do them in the right order.  There was one control that was up a level, but no description to indicate that – I quickly worked it out because everyone else was going up the stairs.  After no 7, they spread out a bit more.  I went with the slow and steady approach, running where I could, but more focused on not making an error.  The further I went, the easier I found the map reading, but by no 18 or so, I was getting tired mentally.  Luckily the last few controls were straightforward.  I ran up the finish chute, downloaded, and to my surprise, finished 10^th of 19 competitors.  Five people had mispunched, and I was faster than a handful of others – a result I was pleased with, given my lack of running or technical orienteering recently.

We didn’t hang around any longer than necessary – get home, get dry and get fed was the order of the day.  We had a couple of hours between races, and with the rain showing no sign of stopping, we just wanted to relax before heading out again.  Its certainly nice to have venues only 5 minutes away instead of 2 hours.

Race 2 was at another group of schools, but the terrain was steeper in places, and more slippery.  I had another 22 controls, but with a map flip this time.  However, my first leg was really confusing – the obvious route was taped off, but the alternative routes were much narrower and very difficult to read on the map.  I lost about 3 minutes just figuring it out.  Once I got going I was ok, but I was a lot more cautious of my footing.  The campuses were suitably complex with more multi level controls, but I seemed to be reading things well.  As I ran for the finish, I knew I’d taken too long to repeat my morning performance – but I was not prepared for a mispunch.

It didn’t take me long to see what I’d done – I’d picked a route from 16 to 17, which took me very close to 18.  I saw the set of stairs that would lead me into 18, and forgot all about 17, just a short distance off to my left.  Damn!!!!!  It’s rare for me to mispunch, and I was absolutely kicking myself, as all four races count for overall placings.  Not that I held any expectations at all, but I would have liked to finish intact. I am not alone, however – there were many mispunches this morning, and more this afternoon.  Ilze and Peter are also among them; I am wondering if there will be more MPs than finishes by the end of tomorrow.

We ran into former club president Peter (yes, another one – we call him Hobbsy), who is here with his family.

Have a look at the maps below, by clicking on them to see them in higher res – check out some of the circle cuts.  In better news, the rain has cleared and the sun is back.