Easter 3-Days, Day 1

Today was the 1st of the 3 day Easter Australian orienteering competition.The results from the races on the 3 days are added together, so you stuff upone of them your chances of doing well are almost dashed.
Nick Collins had a wonderful run in the rocky and subtly varying terrain, getting all the way to the top of the M16 running board. Younger brother Peter also did well in mid-field. Dad had an extra value day spending over 3 hours out with a 40 minute epic leg. Unfortunately for M17 Angus Robinson, a foot injury from yesterday was just too much and he decided to throw it in at his 3rd control. Mother Anne, however, battled it out with Phillippa Collins.

Mark Besley comments that he found the map lacking obvious features once you get away from the rocky areas. Also the plethora of finish punches for different courses caught out many assuming everyone would have the last contol. Very cleverly they all shared a similar control description, so heading to the wrong one could be quite convincing. Some of the vegetation seemed thicker than mapped, wheras other vegetation boundaries were very vague.
Ewen and Henk were both happy to not finish last, but finish, which bearing in mind it’sa 3 day race is important. Suzanne was very happy and proud ofher 6th place.

Sledge course is a fun course open to anyone who wants to be in it, any age or sex. This year there was quite a contingent of girls, myself, various ex-elites or couldabeens and a junior boy (another Neuman !). One Day 1, the tradition is a mass start for all sledgers all on the same course. This produces a very fast event with various packs forming, breaking and re-forming. I took video footage of the 1st few stages and basically hadn’t much of a clue where I was for much of the 1st leg, so had to follow the crowd as the pack got it wrong. I decided a bit more navigation was probably a priority, and in fact I was pretty convinced the pack had got it wrong on the 3rd control, and since I spotted it first I was leading sledge for much of the next leg. My routes were often different for many of the following legs, but I kept re-joining one of the packs as we closed in. However I lost them behind on the 2nd last leg and was on my own for the finish split, which I won with 8s. Overall 3rd in Sledge !

More Sledge:http://www.easter2012.com.au/sledge-competition.html

For winning the finish split I have to wear some green boxers tomorrow. Other possible sledge prizes are fastest downhill, uphill and shortest legs and slowest overall time. Recognising there are many girls doing sledge now, there is a mix of boxers and nighties for the various achievements, so one of the boys looks very fetching in the polka-dot nighty he’ll have to wear tomorrow.
My video is being (possibly?) edited by the carnival organisers andI’ll put a link here when I know.