This Week's Secret Weapon

This must be the right time to experiment, I think, as we head for our Tuesday orienteering fix around the leafy parks and streets of East Melbourne. A trip to Chemist Warehouse last week had resulted in a new purchase, one of the few items on their well-stocked shelves which had previously evaded my credit card. "Kinesiology Sportstape" said the label on the box, with a promise that all my aches and pains would disappear at a stroke. Bargain. I fixed some to my troublesome hamstrings and set course for Blackburn.

Geoff has a torn achilles, so it is remarkable that we have any event at all. Folks have rallied round to help so that our weekly fun can continue uninterrupted. Twenty controls in the hour is my target as I initiate the electronic timing and set off in a southerly direction.

Control 11 first is the plan, then clockwise around the area. Let's see how it works out. No twinges from down below - this is promising. The parkland between 10 and 4 proves to be pleasant running. Control 4 proves to be missing, there is only one canopy and it isn't there. Don't waste time, move on.

Normally, my hip begins to ache at about halfway, but not tonight. There are lots of people out on a pleasant summer evening, all doing their own thing. Tennis, dogs, playing with the kids, walking, jogging, no-one gives me a second glance. Time is accelerating as the final loop nears and in my sweaty confusion, I decide to visit control 11 again. This is unfortunate, as now little time is left for the last few. I decide to do them all and bear the consequences. Eventually I come home in 62 minutes and my pathetic bleating about Control 4 has no effect. "The computer is heartless", I'm told. Reminds me of a parking ticket man I met yesterday. But that's another story.

My gps watch did not co-operate on this occasion and said I had run 0.0km. Measurements later suggest my route was 7.4km in a straight line, which sounds very flattering. I'll take what I can get. The Kinesiology Tape does what it says on the box, though, and I will certainly use it again. A useful secret weapon inside my shorts.