Louise's Running Life: Maryborough Weekend

A double-header of mountainbike orienteering out west at Maryborough - State Series #2 on Saturday afternoon, and SS#3 on Sunday morning. Most people stayed overnight either in Maryborough or close by, and half a dozen of us camped in the YMCA grounds - the event centre for both days.

SAT: Mosquito Flat

Very easy terrain, very complex track network that left many of us stumped. Just as I was about to start, the heavens opened and we found ourselves in the middle of a thunderstorm. Very wet, very muddy!

Big problems finding control #2, looping around and around the same area without really knowing where I was (still pissing down). 25 minutes later, I found the bastard, then had a clean run until I got lost on the way to #5. At this point I was ready to give up and DNF. I pointed the bike back north-west toward the finish and headed off, when I passed a track/fence combination that I recognised on the map. Backtracked to #5, then had a reasonably straightforward run to complete the course.

Course: 3 (Women's B)
Course Length: 9.2 km
Actual Distance: 18.3 km
Time: 1:26

My messed up control #2:

SUN: Bull Gully Wells

After a thorough debrief at a group dinner at the Golf Club last night, I was ready to nail this one. So promptly got onto the wrong track on the way to the first control. I couldn't believe it! I wasn't lost - I knew where I was, but I'd been following the track network so carefully, and I still missed it. I did the rest fairly easily, until the second-to-last control, where I got to the right area, but couldn't match what was on the ground in front of me to what was on the map. After riding around in circles for a while, finally saw someone else duck off onto a side track, and followed him into the control. (Yes, "social navigation" is allowed - but is your source trustworthy?!)

Course: 3 (Women's B)
Course Length: 13.6 km
Actual Distance: 19.2 km
Time: 1:28

Slight embarrassment at the prizegiving. I'd got second-to-last in "Women's Open B", but there were only two of us in this category, because most of the others were in age groups (W40, W50, M50, etc). Women's B is a cop-out for when you don't want to race in your age group (which for me is Women's A, and too long for me at this stage). So I got an award - a cute stained-glass dangly thing.

Click on an image below to see the full-sized map.