Bush-O @ Christmas Hills

Club-level orienteering event at Christmas Hills (north-east of the city). Weather was overcast and drizzly, terrain was very hilly, and all the green stuff was heavy with water. I was drenched through to the skin before I'd reached my first control!

The first few controls were in a "green" (heavy vegetation) area with lots of kangaroos. I never actually saw any, but twice I heard a bark and a rustle very close to me. Hope these things don't want to attack! From there it was mostly spur-gully running (trotting/walking), with only one WTFII moment - the clue was a watercourse junction, the map showed an average-looking gully or two, but the reality was anything but average and I wasn't sure that I was in the correct gully (I was) so I went on further and doubled back to approach it from another angle. It wasn't until I saw Barry emerge from a patch of heavy green stuff that I *knew* I was in the right place. From there until the finish, Barry and I kept leapfrogging - I think he took the easier route along tracks, while I tried to keep to a technical level and travel cross-country following contours and counting spurs.

A very wet outing, and while I wasn't cold out on the course, I couldn't get warm afterwards even after changing into dry clothes. I stayed under the shower once I got home until my fingers turned pink again - it took a little while.

Course: 1
Course Length: 6.5 km
Actual Distance: 8.9 km (MB has it at 10.7 km with 1535m elevation gain - and it felt like it too!)
Time Taken: 2:06

Weekly roundup:

Weight	71.6 kgs
Running	25.2 kms

Not much in the way of "formal" exercise this week, but I've been working my body much harder than usual with the amount of renovation work I've done.