We only had one race on Day 3, in the afternoon.  Normally we would enjoy the sleep in and the leisurely morning, but today was HOT.  By the time we arrived at the venue in Erina, it was about 36 degrees, and we were wilting before we even made it out of the car park.  Survival was going to be the name of the game today.

The campus was very similar to the previous two – a series of buildings lined up along several terraces, with various ways to get around and between them.  Mercifully there was no bush here, but there were a TON of stairs.  Definitely a map that would reward careful navigation rather than speed, even if it weren’t way too hot for flat out running.  My only error was on the first control, where I got confused by the multi storey mapping, wasting time looking for it on the lower level, until I realized I needed to take the first of many sets of stairs.  After that I got “into” the map, and had no problems, just taking it slowly and always making sure I had a plan for each leg.  I gradually worked my way through the field from 9^th to 5^th.  This sort of map suits me, as it slows down the fast runners.

It suited Ian too – so much so, that he won!  It wasn’t a perfect race, but it was good enough to win by a comfortable margin, and he was extremely happy.  Ted was not so fortunate – he missed the first control after the map flip, which was a very short distance away and easily overlooked.  There seemed to be a control around every corner, and in every alcove, so it was no surprise that there were a high number of mispunches across all age classes.  Multi day events are a war of attrition.

Ian was now starting to think about overall honours, but there have been no overall results posted, and we didn’t even know if was scored on cumulative time, or points.  So he decided to ignore all that, and just focus on putting together one more good run.

Today was mercifully cooler and cloudy, and we all felt more energized as we arrived at the last venue, a University campus in Ourimbah.  “You’ve got one job to do” I told Ian – “Don’t mispunch”.  There was one other runner who had placed very consistently each day, and we expected him to win, and Ian to be second or third.

I headed out first, and promptly made my only mistake, by going up a large set of stairs that I didn’t need to go up.  Sheepishly I ran across the elevated walkway and back down the stairs at the other end, trying to pretend I’d made a perfectly sensible route choice (I hadn’t).  Our course today was very straightforward – so much so that I actually checked to make sure I had the right map.  It was a shame, because there were much more interesting sections of the campus, but we basically went straight out, turned around, and came straight back much the same way.  Not surprisingly, I had my quickest time (superfluous stairs notwithstanding) but so did everyone else so my overall position didn’t improve.  But with all four races done, I had no mispunches, and not even any big errors, even on 3 really complex maps.

It was Ian’s turn, and he was determined to run cleanly and not make mistakes.  The first part of his course was far more technical than ours, with the last part being easier and faster.  Whilst unable to replicate yesterday’s victory, he felt he’d done well enough to be on the overall podium.  He went away and did some maths, and concluded that he had in fact won – by 11 seconds!  A tiny margin over 4 races, but he was on the right side of it.

He was duly presented with a mug and an envelope containing an unexpectedly generous amount of prizemoney.  Afterwards, the four of us headed to a nearby bakery, which was doing a roaring trade feeding hungry orienteers.  It had a completely separate gluten free section upstairs, with a good range of pies and cakes.  We celebrated Ian’s win and Margi’s birthday, before returning to our lakeside house.  And yes, we are indeed having a chicken dinner for the winner.

Below are our maps from Races 3 and 4, and some photos from the podium. Compare my Ourimbah (race 4) maps with Ian’s, and you will see a vast difference. Look at our Race 3 maps, and you will see a vast number of stairs!