Victorian Orienteering Champs

An orienteering weekend away with the Middle Distance Champs on Saturday and the Long Distance Champs on Sunday - both events out towards Ballarat. We'd had to pre-enter a few weeks earlier, so I'd entered down a grade because I wasn't sure what my hip would be up to. I went in W21AS - "A Short".

Sailors Creek

Lovely flattish, open, runnable forest, and I ran nearly the whole course. Once I'd remembered the difference between a pit (brown V) and a mineshaft (black V) and found the first control, I was off - nailing every control, not wasting time, and generally having a good run.

My feet hurt a bit across the top of the arch - I was wearing my orienteering shoes which have spikes and a hard sole, and I guess my feet were out of practice on the hard terrain. Both hips were a bit achy afterwards from the jarring.

Course: 5 (W21AS)
Course Length: 3.2 km
Actual Distance: 3.5 km (red-lining it!)
Elevation: 92m
Time taken: 44 minutes

Second place (out of 4)

Overnight at Paddys Ranges State Park

Beautiful area. Very glad I packed my sub-zero sleeping bag as the temperature dropped below zero overnight. As long as I didn't wriggle too much and let any cold air in, I was toasty warm.



edit: -4°C in Ballarat overnight.

Mount Beckworth

Hilly, rocks everywhere, and a lot hotter than yesterday. Today was the real reason I dropped down a grade - my "proper" grade (W35A) was twice as long.

I don't navigate very well in rocks, and the brown squiggly things in this area (contour lines) are too complex to make much sense. I started by dropping down to the road and following it until I had a clear entry point to control #1. From there I went okay, carefully following rock features and having an amazing run of luck. I pretty much landed straight on top of each control, and at no time did I wonder where the hell I was or where the control might be hiding.

I wore my softer trail shoes and had no problems with my feet. Hips were fine.

Course: 10 (W21AS)
Course Length: 3.9 km
Actual Distance: 4.9 km
Elevation: 310m
Time Taken: 1:14

First place! (out of 2)

bling: