She'd not long had COVID, perhaps walking was what she could manage. I say, as someone who precovid could manage an 8km walk in 1hr20m, but now counts it a big energy day if I can get through one yin yoga class a week. And I'm about ten years younger than Samantha. It can really mess with your stamina. It's messed with my circulation, too, all my blood pools in my feet, now, and I have to take breaks from standing while making dinner. We know that Samantha reportedly had low blood pressure. It could have been a result of having had COVID.
MOO
I feel for you. I had post covid syndrome (like long covid but thankfully doesn’t go for longer than 3 months).
Look it could be that. Although she apparently she said she was going to do a 14km run. I would have expected her to say she was still recovering so was going to walk.
I would not have attempted a 14km walk or run by myself in mostly bush if I wasn’t fully recovered but I’m not her.
As other posters said 14km is oddly specific and her phone turning off at arguably the half way point is another slightly odd factor.
Of course these could be individual nuances.
“Superintendent Hatt claimed the 7km run to where her phone went dead took the experienced runner more than an hour - about half-an-hour longer than it should have.”
The fact Hatt comments on her taking longer than expected makes me wonder if this is a comment directed to the suspect/s?
Hatt says she took “more than an hour”. So I assume less than an hour and half or he would have said that. So I will assume it’s around 75 minutes to do 7km.
Even if she was recovering from covid and doing a walk run combo she shouldn’t have taken that long.
That’s 11 minutes splits on
average. If she was doing a walk/run it would be faster than that, maybe 8 minute splits.
IMO this is not consistent with an experienced runner running the whole way or even doing a run/walk combo the whole way.
This is more consistent with someone walking at a brisk pace the whole way. Or a non runner walking fast in between a slow jog.
I personally think this comment from Hatt is significant.
What has actually happened here?
She’s either run at her normal pace and then stopped for a decent amount of time? Why? To talk to someone?
Did she actually meet someone when she entered the forest and slowed her pace to match theirs? If so you would expect someone saw her with someone else.
Did something happened to her soon after she entered the forest and the offender then walked that remaining distance before turning the phone off? And it just happened to be at the 7km mark.
Or did someone who wasn’t a runner take her phone/watch to make it appear she went for a run or make it appear that she got further away from home then she actually did?
If so this would suggest someone who was familiar with her routes. JMO.