David Shepherd used an ACTAS GPS unit to record his race in the NSW State League at Seldom Seen. Its interesting to see how much Shep zig-zagged through the forest – a sign of how rough the terrain really is.

David Shepherd (Canberra Cockatoos)

This is a race I would really like to forget. I usually start races using what I consider to be the safest route choices, which in this case I thought was along the fence and over the hill past number 19. But this time I started out hard and tried to run straighter but misjudged how far I had come and ran up through the saddle immediately to the south west of the number 19 printed on the map thinking I was coming into the saddle under the line and closer to the control. I quickly realised this but pushed on harder and was quite unsure of where I was coming down the hill into number 1 as I hadn’t attacked the control from a safe direction (i.e. directly down from the knoll above). I regained some composure on the way to number 2 but I wasn’t feeling 100% and I had quite sore calves from running on an athletics track earlier in the week so I decided to ease off as I crossed the spur on the way over to the fourth control. From there on I tried to keep the orienteering smooth but the terrain was so rough it was extremely difficult to hold any line through the forest. This is quite evident by the GPS track zig-zagging around the course, running up over the hill to number 8 instead of contouring around to the saddle, and my mistake at number 10 where I was trying to avoid running diagonally downhill over rough and rocky ground. This was the first time I had raced with the GPS and I’m pretty impressed with the results. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this sort of thing!