GREAT LEGS – Jo Allison’s Day 3 at Easter

Jo Allison was W21E winner at the Australian 3-Days for the fourth year in a row. She also won Day 3. Running for the Canberra Cockatoos and Red Roos club, Jo finished in 2nd place in the Prologue and on Day 1, improving to 1st place on Days 2 & 3.

Jo’s route choices at Buckenderra South

DAY 3 was a fun and technically challenging course on ”Buckenderra South” with the added excitement of a chasing start in reverse order of placings after the first two days and the prologue. Start-1: I was feeling quite nervous at the start. I thought I’d be safest running along the little track as far as I could to no.1, to let myself calm down. I turned into the forest after seeing the second boulder on the right and ran between the two big groups of rock, then ran on careful compass down to my group of rocks. Was very happy to see the control. 1-2: I dropped down to the clearing and ran along its edge to the track. I saw the group of rocks to the left just after the track. Keeping on compass, I checked off the skinny clearing, ran between the two boulders and slowed down into the circle to make sure I ran to the right rock. 2-3: Ran up the gully and just to the left of the major rockface. Misread the rock slightly going into the circle, although I wasn’t really off course, I lost some seconds hesitating. 3-4: To get my direction right out of the control, I picked the big boulder just right of the straight line and the little knoll with the boulder on it to the left of the line to run between. Then, keeping the big knoll to the left, I saw the three boulders in the clearing. From there it was a nice short run up the track and into the forest after the boulder on the right. 4-5: I had planned to run straight, over the knoll and down the gully on the other side, but I drifted a bit right and suddenly found myself on the rocky part of the slope. Still managed to pick the big single

Photo: Mike Hubbert boulder below the rocky slope and used compass into the control circle. 5-6: I ran to the right of the two knolls either side of the straight line. From there I could see the saddle before the control. I tried to be careful going down the slope towards the control, checking off the rock and looking out for the small gully below the control. 6-7: I angled down the slope towards the open gully. I wanted to pick the gully going up the slope on the other side where there was a slight gap between the rocks. I ran to the top of the ridge and along to the knoll. I thought this control was tricky so I was careful to check my compass before leaving the knoll and going down to the control. I first met Hanny Allston at this control and we saw a lot of each other for the rest of the course. 7-8: I always think short legs like this across rocky hillsides are difficult as its easy to drop or climb the wrong amount and lose track of the rock detail. In this case, fortunately it turned out less scary than I initially thought. There was a group of boulders on the left leaving no.7, and a big lone boulder nearly half-way. From there it was possible to see the group of rocks before the control and read the detail into the circle. 8-9: I tried to angle up out of the control on compass, intending to pick up the big rock on the edge of the circle and the little gully right before the control. I think I must have misjudged the distance going so slowly uphill through the green and veered slightly left as I was expecting to see these things a bit too soon. I hesitated a bit below the control before spotting the boulder I’d been hoping to see, losing a little bit of time. 9-10: Ran on compass over the hill. The huge boulder on top of the ridge and boulder cluster after it were good features to lead me into the control. 10-11: Decision time. The first option I saw was to run left up the hill and pass by the start. I considered going right, down the steep gully and cutting across to the saddle two-thirds of the way on the right side of the line. I decided left looked safer (some track running and a nice track leading to the control) and it got the climb over with early. 11-12: Things were getting pretty exciting by no.11, with Hanny, Allison Jones and I all leaving there at about the same time, and the pace was getting quicker. I headed straight for the top of the hill from where I could see the knoll with the bare rock on it. That was a good attack point as it was easy to spot the cliff and the control from there. 12-13: The rocky knoll to the left of the straight line was a good big feature for getting my exit direction out of no.12. I saw the boulder below it, crossed the track and looked for the shallow gully leading to the control. There it was...nice. 13-14: Straight up the gully and over the spur, keeping the rocky ground on my left. Ran straight down the gully and got a good view of the cliff from a distance. 14-15: I’d say this is the control where I took the biggest risk, running a bit faster than I can safely navigate. I contoured round the hill and crossed the track a bit of a way above the big bend at the bottom of the hill. From the track, I ran for a bit without making much fit on the map, but knowing I was below the green. Thankfully, I saw the clearing in the gully, but lost a few seconds in the circle running towards a different boulder thinking it was mine, and then suddenly Tracy Bluett also appeared from behind. 15-16: Now with four of us together, I left the control too fast in the wrong direction down to the track, and so I did a bit of extra distance and fell behind Hanny and Tracy who ran straight. Still, once on the track I got a sense of relief that all the difficult forest orienteering was done and now it was just a matter of not doing anything silly. 16-17-18-19-Finish: A few short legs and very good visibility to finish off.

Tracy Bluett and Hanny Allston in the finish chute whilst Jo Allison and Allison Jones loom just out of view. Photo: Peter Cusworth

Jo leads Allison Jones from the final control. Photo: Bob Mouatt