Egos Like Hairdos at the AROC Sprint November 2010 - Canberra

I remember laughing at the AROC in Tuggeranong earlier in the year when Ian, Lizzie and I finished 3rd overall and second mixed team or something. Tom was constantly amazed the team I was in was so high up. Thanks for the huge vote of confidence there Tom <g>. So today that theme continued, with Tom, Al and Dave all constantly surprised as we came through all the transitions in second place (finish of pinnacles and entering the water slides or later on in the overall lead. Oh well I guess unlike me they do not believe pink is a fast colour.

The course was a lot of fun, the controls were a little obvious most of the time as you got near them, the nav on the whole was good though. Jamison water slides were awesome and after doing them in an AROC a few years ago I was happy to see them in a race again. What we would have really liked was bonus legs to appear in the event again, with us finishing just before 12pm we had a lot of sitting around until presentation, it would have been fun to keep racing out there on some more bonus sections for a while. Even if it had been Tom's suggestion of sending us to the top of Mt Ainslie.

Thanks to Ian and Aaron for the race, thanks to Tom, Al and all the AROC people and volunteers for the event, I look forward to the next Canberra race. Amusingly, Ian also won a lucky draw prize, for which you had to fill in a survey. One question was how many times a week do you run, Ian was in a quandry wether he should put down once a week or maybe zero as it tends to be closer to that most of the time. As Mark may say, regular repetetive training? Who needs it.

fullsize Phil walking to race briefing in the morning. fullsize Ian and Aaron fullsize Tom giving us a briefing. fullsize Some other competitors fullsize A Bilbys team. fullsize Lucy and Dane closest to camera who came second mixed. fullsize The winning womens team with Felicity, Mace and Ria fullsize The junior team of orienteers, all around 15 or 16 who came 5th overall. I like the hat style here boys. fullsize This guy won the fancy dress award for the race today wearing pink budgie smugglers (so branded on the back) with leg protection. Alina awarded him the Redbull Stunt plane ride. fullsize Ian and Aaron as we run up the first hill in the pinnacles. fullsize On the bikes heading toward Jamison Pool. fullsize At the pool about to have some fun on the water slides. fullsize Alina checking out punches as we do the slide rides. fullsize Down the slow slide first fullsize Up the stairs fullsize Aaron fullsize The other team we were at the slides with. They finished second in the end. fullsize Alina posing for the camera.

fullsize Trying to get Aaron in shot as we go down the faster slide again. fullsize Ian out on Black Mountain fullsize Aaron fullsize Ro, with Kim and Sean as we descend back to the TA. fullsize Kim waving. fullsize Anna manning the TA at the underpass. fullsize Ian as we turn the boat while Aaron grabs a control. fullsize Leaving the boats on the beach at the rowing regatta while we run through Weston park. fullsize Aaron climbing to the control. fullsize The guy who put the control up here wondered if it was too high, I said it was fine, though he thought some slow teams may struggle, I tried asking if we could claim we were a slow team. I guess not as Aaron grabbed this one easily. fullsize After the swim across to the bike path Aaron on the path. fullsize Looking back to some teams paddling or one getting into the swim too. fullsize Hunsie was manning the TA with boats and bikes. fullsize Ian and Aaron as we finished the ANUgaine. fullsize Aaron on the bike path after the museum. fullsize Shoulder free shot. fullsize Ian crossing the finish line fullsize And Aaron.

fullsize The third member of Dane and Lucy's team, Rob. fullsize Dane and Lucy fullsize Dane, I think Aaron was enjoying looking around the crowd relaxing post race with my camera. fullsize More people enjoying the shade. fullsize Aaron found this guy amusing, pointing him out to me (the Vegan on our team) with his Powered by Veg slogan. fullsize Redbull tent. fullsize Looking the other way again. fullsize I said to Aaron there were no photos of me in here, he fixed that. fullsize Heading up to collect our prize, Ian with Amber in tow. fullsize Saying thanks to everyone for rocking up and how much fun it was fullsize Though we could do with some bonus legs for some more fun. fullsize Selecting prizes (Aaron and I chose Salamon XA Pro shoes and Ian chose a Suunto watch). fullsize Ian and Amber checking out some other stuff with me. fullsize Ian and Amber fullsize Ian heading back, the t-shirt is pretty awesome it looks like a pixelated camera failure or deliberate photo obscure thing but the shirt looks like that. fullsize Kim with some prizes for first place mixed. fullsize More teams selecting their prizes. fullsize We won that, maybe we should buy a $10 plan from Aaron's neighbour for our next step in world domination. See how cunning these plans are.