State Series #2 orienteering event

Yesterday was a beautiful autumn day of some 27 degrees but a little (a LOT) hot for my liking for bush orienteering! We picked up a young friend from our hockey club who has been enjoying some running at street O and headed to "Porcupine Ridge" between Malmsbury and Daylesford in the morning. Our courses would cover 6.5 km (son), 4.1 km (me) and 2.6 km (friend) in spur/gully native bush terrain with some old mining diggings and shafts to watch out for. It was also quite hilly. I found the going pretty tough in the heat and slowed to a walk many a time. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I checked the results later in the day and found I was leading the ladies in my age group. I hadn't made any serious navigational errors so that had made a big difference of 10-25 minutes over some competitors. Full results aren't available yet so maybe a faster person finished after me ... have to wait and see. The boys had good runs too. My son made a couple of errors that cost quite a bit of time but he recovered and completed the rest of the course quickly. The newcomer seemed very pleased with his time and the bush experience.

Junior Squad members cooking toasties and soup for the hungry crowd!