Orienteering in South East Queensland

10:00 Sunday 31st May 2009
"University of Queensland St.Lucia" 2009 1:5,000 5m
UBD 179L4 4km S of Brisbane CBD
"Long" 11 controls 3.3km little climb

This was the 3rd of 3 events in the same area today. I was very tired and did not run as much as I liked.

I was happy with 27 minutes which put me in the top 25% until I saw Mat's 17 minutes.

Young Jack took 25 minutes to find the first control and 34 on the 3rd. Ah well.

08:00 Sunday 31st May 2009
"Fairfield Parks" 2009 1:10,000 5m
UBD 179N5 4km S of Brisbane CBD
"Long" 5km little climb

Second of three events in the same area today, I was a bit wobbly coming off the bike and didn't run as much as I would have liked, nevertheless I inexplicably placed 10th of 36 in 36 minutes, 7 minutes behind Tim.

The only notable event was young Jack coming 3rd on his 3rd ever event. Amazing.

08:00 Sunday 31st May 2009
"Yeronga" 2009 1:10,000 5m
UBD 179J7 5km S of Brisbane CBD
Scatter 20 of 20 4.7km little climb

This event was unbelieveably crap.

I took the anticlockwise loop and had no problems with navigation but a lot of trouble finding the controls which were randomly situated anywhere that looked pretty; some were not even in the circle. I never did find three of them, which most orienteers competing experienced.

It would have been just a smidgen easier if the controls had flags, or were not on the ground in long grass, or if control descriptions had been supplied, or if many circles on the map didn't have in their centre... absolutely nothing. Even when I found the damn things I had to uncleat and dismount to clip.

Turns out that the MTBO club used an old version of the map - Rob has added lots of detail since then. I don't know my time and I don't really want to...

09:00 Sunday 24th May 2009
"Flagstone West" 1:10,000 5m
40km SSW of Brisbane
"Red 3" 6.4km 205m climb (3.2%)

The map is a bit of a mess because of felling and the lantana is much worse than mapped - I wasted maybe 5 minutes getting past thick clumps. Nevertheless I had a very steady race and came 1st in my class and 2nd on the course 6 minutes behind Bridget in 70 minutes (10.7mpk). The only leg I didn't do straight was 10 where lantana pushed me right and I crossed the gully not far from 4. Only 7 red course competitors had a better K rate; I may have gained an advantage because the area was wet, slippery and green, all of which are mother's milk to a Kiwi.

15:00 Saturday 16th May 2009
"Kelvin Grove Urban Village" 2009 1:5,000 5m
UBD 159K4 2km NW of Brisbane CBD
"Short Red" 12 controls 3.3km 75m climb

I burgled the short because I was feeling sluggish and won in 29 minutes with a K rate of 8.8 which was about halfway down the field on the Long.

4-5 I didn't manage to find a way off the main drag and went all the way left down to the sportsfields with loss of a few seconds.

10 I found myself between the buildings immediately to the NE losing 10 seconds.

08:00 Saturday 17th May 2009
"Down and Dirty" 1:20,000 5m
65km North of Brisbane
Course 3 22km no climb

My 3rd MTBO event and again very successful. I started steadily, concentrating on not falling off, not losing track of my position on the map, and not missing the track junctions, which proved difficult to identify until I realised they were almost all flagged with a blue blaze on a tree or a blue post. Gaining confidence in my navigation, route choice and riding I got faster and faster throughout the event; the flat-out slogs 8-9-10-11 towards the end were no problem, so I must be getting some cycling fitness.

On 2 the diagonal track was nowhere to be found and I wasted a minute going down an unmapped dead end track, or maybe it was the right track and just worse than I expected. Rideability of the lesser tracks was so impaired that it was better to take the right-angle track anyway.

My time of 79 minutes is 3.6mpk. I was 3rd on the course and 2nd in M50-59, 10 minutes behind David Firman (3.1mpk), which is not a new experience! Hub Carter would have beaten me but for a blunder on 6. I didn't win a single leg.

Course 2 was won in 3.4mpk; course 1 in 3.1mpk.

12:00 Thursday 14th May 2009
"Samford Forest" 2004 1:10,000 5m
UBD 106R16 17km NW of BRisbane CBD
"Short" 10 controls 3km 160m climb (5.3%)

I walked the course with Anna The Noob; we were very accurate, although the map seemed to go a bit wibbly approaching 7; we took 108 minutes (36mpk!) The last few controls were brutal, but it was a very good course, well done Sue and Walter.

12:00 Thursday 7th May 2009
"Buhot Creek North" 1998 1:10,000 5m
UBD 223N11 22km SE of Brisbane CBD
"Long" 3.8km 165m climb (4.3%)

I was on form and had near-perfect run of 41 minutes (10.8mpk) putting me in 3rd place 3 minutes behind Su Yan.

16:00 Tuesday 5th May 2009

09:00 Sunday 4th May 2009
"Bright View" 1:15,000 5m
62km WSW of Brisbane CBD
"Red 3" 12 controls 3.2km 35m climb (1.1%)

Having helped on registration I ran very late which was an advantage in the long grass because of elephant tracks, but I still ran very little of the course.

I was fairly accurate and wasted very little time. There's plenty of terrain like this near Auckland - open, grassy, subtle contour - so I found it easy, especially with the fencelines telegraphing where to go. Consequently I won the course easily in 28:46 (8.7mpk).

Compared with 7mpk on Red 1 and 2 that doesn't look too hot, but only 5 of 60 runners had a better K rate so I was happy.