A long walk to the start combined with the prospect of a long drive home meant we were keen to begin our courses as early as possible. A very nice feature of the M/W10N course, was although they were allocated a start time, the competitors could punch start at any time they wished. Certainly made our life easier.
Andy was one of the first starters and it was game on with Jase who was had a 20 second lead. Meanwhile I ambled up with the four children - Makhaya, Luca, Ella and Katy, hoping they'd all still be happy by the time we got to the start! Which they were :)
It had been decided that Makhaya would start first, after a few minutes Luca would head off, followed by Ella, Katy and myself. Maki raced off; Luca looked pretty unsure of herself and eventually got going; while Ella was trying to be independent and I was trying to teach Katy a thing or two!
At control number 2, Makhaya came tearing back - it seems he ran straight past it before sprinting off to catch up Ella who at that stage had nearly caught up Luca. It was a long steep hill to number 3 and soon the three older children were out of sight. I was just hoping that they were going in the right direction!The route to number 4 was taped….through the bush straight down the other side of the very steep hill we'd just climbed! It was tough going especially for a 4 year old with short legs stepping over all the fallen timber but we got there eventually only to see Ella in the distance walking back towards us. By the time she'd reached us, Luca appeared and was also coming back but Maki was nowhere to be seen. Hmm I began to wonder if Maki went the right way and was off in the distance or had he gone down the wrong fence line too? Not much I could do except hope and we continued on our way.
After a little chat with the girls we were off in the correct direction looking for control 5. Ella and Luca began working together for the rest of the course. They did really well despite being distracted by control number 8 across the clearing and ran off to it thinking it was control 7!
The cherry trees appeared in the distance and we were soon running up the finish chute, all very happy to have finished. We found Maki back at the rugs looking very disappointed. It seems that he too chose the wrong fence line and ended up at the farmhouse before getting confused as to where he was and deciding that he'd had enough.
After a drink, we gathered a few more children to join us on the last string course. Aoife (and Cath) had used a sea theme for the controls winding the string through the cherry trees and long grass. Once again the children had fun running the course frontwards, backwards and every which way wards!
Andy finished his course pretty shattered after 3 days of hard running. He managed to pick up 4 minutes though on Jase and so they finished 4th and 5th respectively in M40s.
We didn't hang around long as we were keen to get back to Canberra at a reasonable hour. We briefly stopped in Bathurst and then again in Cowra. Andy gave Cathy a break from solo driving until Murrumbateman and we got to listen to Cathy's homemade cd including Let it Go (from the Frozen movie) on repeat. I thought I did well to last 6 times!
Easter was really enjoyable this year…mainly because the girls are growing up, are happy to entertain themselves and require less supervision as well as their willingness to learning and participate on the easy course. Despite the freezing conditions overnight, the weather was perfect and camping with so many friends was wonderful too. The only downer was receiving a $248 speeding ticket in the mail yesterday….As we were leaving Bathurst I was thinking I hadn't seen a speed limit sign. Thought I was in either a 60km/h or 80km/h section and then I saw the speed camera car. Turns out it was a 50km/h section and I was going 64km/h….
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