Queens Birthday Day 1 - Long Distance (Telephone Track)

It seems that all my long weekends are taken up with orienteering and Queens Birthday Weekend this year was no exception. No travel required this time since all the events were taking place in the Auckland region with the first 2 days on my local stomping ground, Woodhill.

I've been getting quite nervous before events since moving up to W21E. I'm guessing this will slowly pass as I get used to this grade which would be good because nerves make me panic and make stupid route choices. The first race was a long distance race at Woodhill on the Saturday morning. Long distance is probably the event I like the most. Anyway, it's your lucky day 'cause Dad was standing at the start taking photos of me...


Nervously waiting at the start box with about a minute to go.

And we're off...trying not to trip up whilst attempting to locate the first control on the map.
I actually found the first control fairly okay which is always a good way to start. Things were going mostly okay (abet a little slow and cautious) until #15. From #14 I bashed out of the sanddunes as quickly as possible because it's crappy terrain and difficult to work out exactly where you are. I thought I could relocate once I was back in the forest but it felt like a bit of a dead zone and nothing was fitting. I ended up nearly at the road before I worked out vaguely where I was.


I then promptly stuffed up #16 as well. I got up to the depression to the left of the control which I knew was wrong so I went right into the next depression but it didn't look how I imagined it would (it was much broader). I fluffed around for a bit too long before nearly stumbling on the control! Frustrating. The rest was okay and I came in with an alright time especially considering the field...I even beat one of the Aussie bushrangers! Yeah!